Apple removed 190 apps from its Russian App Store at the request of Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor between 2022 and 2024, the company’s own annual transparency reports for those three years show.
Though the number of apps removed from the Russian App Store has risen every year, that number rose hugely in 2024, when the Russian authorities began cracking down far more aggressively on online freedoms than it previously had done.
After removing just seven apps in 2022, and 12 in 2023, Apple deleted 171 apps in 2024, meaning that Russia ranked second only to China by the number of apps removed at the request of the authorities.
In the vast majority of cases — 182 out of 190 — Roskomnadzor invoked the same piece of Russian legislation setting out the grounds for blocking websites in its requests to the US tech giant. These range from the dissemination of materials by “undesirable organisations” to incitement to terrorism. A further seven apps were removed for breaching Russian financial laws, specifically to combat illegal securities trading, online fraudsters and the theft of personal data.
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As an addition, it is noteworthy that Apple is (in-)famous to bow to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party. For example, one report reads, Apple’s censorship in China is just the tip of the iceberg after the Chinese government ordered Apple to remove several widely used messaging apps—WhatsApp, Threads, Signal, and Telegram—from its app store.
According to reports from 2020, Apple purges nearly 30,000 apps from Chinese App Store.
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My interpretation of this article is that they criticize Apple for acting according to Russian laws when operating in Russia.
I also don’t like Apple, but from my perspective, they either have to stop operating in Russia completely (which I’d prefer) or ‘bow to the Kremlin’. Any other option involves Apple playing Sheriff and deciding themselves what is right or wrong. And I don’t think that private corporations should have that power.
Ah, yeah ok, I can see how it could be interpreted that way, especially the headline.
I suppose to me it was so obvious it’s up to the state to regulate companies and not the companies themselves, that pointing it out felt like endorsing the regulation itself.
But maybe that’s just my European showing lol