{"id":38325,"date":"2023-01-30T15:47:11","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T20:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=38325"},"modified":"2023-01-30T15:47:55","modified_gmt":"2023-01-30T20:47:55","slug":"safe-browsing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/30\/safe-browsing\/","title":{"rendered":"Safari Safe Browsing Blocks GitLab in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/01\/26\/apple-china-censorship-hong-kong-gitlab\/\">Sam Biddle<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/samfbiddle\/status\/1618652951316402177\">tweet<\/a>, via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TimSweeneyEpic\/status\/1619048032871514113\">Tim Sweeney<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/01\/26\/apple-china-censorship-hong-kong-gitlab\/\">\n<p>When Safari users in Hong Kong recently tried to load the popular code-sharing website GitLab, they received a strange warning instead: Apple&rsquo;s browser was blocking the site for their own safety. The access was temporarily cut off thanks to Apple&rsquo;s use of a Chinese corporate website blacklist, which resulted in the innocuous site being flagged as a purveyor of misinformation. Neither Tencent, the massive Chinese firm behind the web filter, nor Apple will say how or why the site was censored.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>The episode raises thorny questions about privatized censorship done in the name of &ldquo;safety&rdquo; &mdash; questions that neither company seems interested in answering: How does Tencent decide what&rsquo;s blocked? Does Apple have any role? Does Apple condone Tencent&rsquo;s blacklist practices?<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>The block came as a particular surprise to Ka-cheong and other Hong Kong residents because Apple originally said the Tencent blocklist would be used only for Safari users inside mainland China. According to a review of the Internet Archive, however, sometime after November 24, 2022, Apple quietly edited its Safari privacy policy to note that the Tencent blacklist would be used for devices in Hong Kong as well. (Haija, the Apple spokesperson, did not respond when asked when or why Apple expanded the use of Tencent&rsquo;s filter to Hong Kong.)<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>The block on GitLab would not be the first time Tencent deemed a foreign website &ldquo;dangerous&rdquo; for apparently ideological reasons. In 2020, attempts to visit the official website of Notepad++, a text editor app whose French developer had previously issued a statement of solidarity with Hong Kong dissidents, were <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2020\/08\/17\/notepad-plus-plus-blocked-in-china\/\">blocked<\/a> for users of Tencent web browsers, again citing safety.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/21\/apple-engraving-censorship\/\">Apple Engraving Censorship<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/19\/apple-adds-proxy-for-safe-browsing-queries\/\">Apple Adds Proxy for Safe Browsing Queries<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/04\/apples-commitment-to-human-rights\/\">Apple&rsquo;s Commitment to Human Rights<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/01\/safari-safe-browsing-china-and-privacy\/\">Safari Safe Browsing, China, and Privacy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/25\/hkmap-live-removed-from-the-app-store\/\">HKmap Live Removed From the App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Biddle (tweet, via Tim Sweeney): When Safari users in Hong Kong recently tried to load the popular code-sharing website GitLab, they received a strange warning instead: Apple&rsquo;s browser was blocking the site for their own safety. The access was temporarily cut off thanks to Apple&rsquo;s use of a Chinese corporate website blacklist, which resulted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2023-01-30T20:47:15Z","apple_news_api_id":"5bb51038-b992-48cd-9b02-4989371c11d7","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2023-01-30T20:47:58Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AW7UQOLmSSM2bAkmJNxwR1w","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1547,2252,2333,31,2185,30,2223,103,2288,96],"class_list":["post-38325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-china","tag-gitlab","tag-hong-kong","tag-ios","tag-ios-16","tag-mac","tag-macos-13-ventura","tag-safari","tag-tencent","tag-web"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38329,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38325\/revisions\/38329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}