Alphabet’s Google and Apple have removed jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s tactical voting app from their stores, his team said on Friday, after Russia accused the U.S. tech firms of meddling in its internal affairs.
Russia goes to the polls on Friday to elect a new parliament in a three-day vote that the ruling United Russia party is expected to win despite a ratings slump after the biggest crackdown on the Kremlin’s critics in years.
Apple, only a few weeks ago during the CASM debacle, adamantly told the world it would never bow to government pressure. Unsurprisingly, that was a bold-faced lie.
Google publicly commits itself to human rights, but apparently, that does not extend to Putin critics and the Russian opposition.
FRIENDLY REMINDER; With Android you can at least sideload the apk, with iOS you are screwed (no, most people don’t have an Apple Developer subscription and accompanying Mac nor do they have the technical skills to upload stuff from X-code).
And that’s why you should not buy iOS devices. Seriously.
If I was able to tolerate Froyo and LG’s fake flagship (Optimus 2X) in the name of sideloading freedom some 10 years ago, you should be able to make-do any modern Android phone (which are pretty good actually). Keep in mind that, as a citizen of the developed world, you have more “voting power” when it comes to developer mindshare, so your choices matter.
Android isn’t perfect (forcing GMS and all) but at least I can install any app I want directly from the developer’s website, dammit!
Amen, brother.
“Google removed the app Friday morning after the Russian authorities issued a direct threat of criminal prosecution against the company’s staff in the country, naming specific individuals,”
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/09/apple-and-google-cave-to-putins-censors-block-navalny-app-as-election-begins/
Thom has this strange notion that multinational corporations don’t have to follow local laws.
No company is forced to deal with all markets, they could retreat.
What would be the breaking point for them?
Directly becoming complicit in mass murder? Or nothing at all?
On the other hand – the Russian regime is clearly illegitimate.
And who are you to say that ?
For me, it points out the absurdity of the free world trading with regimes such as Putin’s Russia or the Chinese Communist Party.
Corporations are just hunting global marketshare (Eric Schmidt was fired from CEO when he essentially ceded China to Apple), it’s the government’s task to embargo regimes such as Putin’s Russia or the Chinese Communist Party and then also embargo anyone who trades with them.
And yes, I do find it weird that the public had been brainwashed into thinking the TPP was a good thing.
kurkosdr,
We can argue even the Soviet industrial complex was initially built by the free world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrialization_in_the_Soviet_Union . There is sometimes goodwill, sometimes greed, sometimes desperation, and maybe a mix of them all.
If you embargo a corrupt regime, it is the people that suffer, not their ruling class. The case today is probably Venezuela, where average adults lost 43 pounds in “Maduro diet”, but Maduro himself still stands.
If you send aid, it is distributed and used by the state propaganda (again, those US built soviet factories, or every dictatorship in sub-Saharan Africa).
If you open Internet, they will try to subvert, hijack, and alter it to meet their needs. (China comes to mind).
I don’t think there is ever an easy “solution”.
sukru,
+1, this is really tough to solve. You can use the carrot or the stick, but for better or worse either way the ruling class are never going to be effected as much as those beneath them. There are so many examples of this in the world that we can assume this will always be the case.
Imagine a Venezuela as strong as China… Allowing China to present an impression of prosperity to its citizens, most of it thanks to Western technology investments, thus reducing the chances of dissent and revolution, was a major strategic mistake. That way, the Chinese people do get a bit of prosperity (thought not much due to labor practices), but the regime gets established further.
Countries with elected governments should only trade with countries with elected governments, it’s simple really.
Alfman,
It gets particularly worse if they have valuable resources, and don’t need the local population for their wealth.
If you have oil, you can always bring in foreigners to extract and refine it, and just get the profits in your personal account.
My assumption — and the general one probably — was a wealthy society would demand change, like Magna Carta in England back in the day. And China is a becoming very good test for that. (or shall I say very bad)?
LOL. Chinese people are producing most of the goods in the world, especially the electronics. Good luck 😉
Seems you’re brainwashed by one-sided poisonous propaganda. Try to get info from other sources.
There are laws and there’s complete lawlessness.
You don’t f*cking know anything about Russia to say crap like this.
The last elections in Russia were totally rigged as most others held in the past 15 years.
>> lawlessness
You are confusing Russia and Ukraine 😉
Russian authorities are using (kinda draconic) laws to prevent western-backed opposition to get elected.
Do you think we will vote for Navalniy as president? =)
I would vote for communist but not when somebody order me what to do.
Imagine if russian app ordered american to choose specific candidate?
Would it be meddling? Definitely,
Unless they’re EU laws, then he gets mad if they don’t. You don’t get to have it both ways. However, that said, Apple and Google shouldn’t get to have it both ways either, e.g. not following U.S or EU tax laws.
We already know Google influences elections all over the place. Any company with as much influence of what content you get served has that power, and Google are behaving more and more like a media company every day. Apple don’t have the mindshare to do that in the same way just yet, however they are more than willing to remove stuff they don’t like (e.g. Parler) and in that way they do have similar influential power. It’s a dangerous situation, for everyone, no matter which country you live in.
More than 35 years ago my father bought my brother and I a Spectrum 16K and it determined me pursuing a job in IT.
Not sure if I should thank him though 🙂
Oops Posted under the wrong article :(. Ignore. I will repost under Sinclair
While I agree in principle and Apple selling out specifically, … it is not really stealing the election when the majority of Russians vote for Putin anyway. I wonder why we the West does not copy more of the election interference playbook and make massive free speech advertising to influence the Russian election 😉
rene,
Actually as I understand it, there’s rampant ballot stuffing in Russia.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mop-ballot-stuffing-videos-taint-russian-election-80131703
I’m in no position to judge the authenticity of the footage, but you can find some of these videos yourself. When the responsibility falls on the incumbent officials to enforce election integrity, there’s potential for abuse. That neither party have been able to prove massive voter fraud gives some confidence. But then you’ve got Trump and the GOP still trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election using FUD, hiring private contractors to recount ballots, pressuring officials to retroactively decertify the election, etc.
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-asks-georgia-to-decertify-the-2020-election-2021-9
On the one hand, I’m glad that these tactics haven’t worked yet and that attempts to compromise elections haven’t been successful. However on the other hand I am extremely worried about the acceptance of authoritarianism in such a major political party. They will come back into power sooner rather than later due to the political pendulum effect and I am fearful of what could happen if they don’t rebuke authoritarianism and they have absolute control over all three branches of government as it is likely to be. A lot of the level-headed politicians in the GOP are quitting in protest of their own party, but their spots will being replaced with extremists.
Oh, this is referring to the US elections…
I didn’t make that clear. At least in the US both major parties are observers and one acts as a check on the other.