What would be the point? If they don’t remove it, do you imagine they’d still be selling iPhones in the country?
Only way I can see around this is to buy an android and load your own non-backdoored rom.
harsh3466@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
Privacy. That’s iPhone.
Unless the government says otherwise. Because really we don’t give a fuck about you or your privacy.
capital@lemmy.world 6 months ago
abhibeckert@lemmy.world 6 months ago
What would be the point? If they don’t remove it, do you imagine they’d still be selling iPhones in the country?
Actually - yes I do. Kicking out Apple would be a huge blow to both the Chinese and American economies. I’m sure China wants to do that, but right now they cannot do it.
Do you think anyone has ever criticised X Jinping in iMessage? Obviously the answer is yes - and yet iMessage is allowed while every other major (foreign) social network has just been banned. iMessage was exempt because they don’t dare do anything against Apple.
capital@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I assumed the Chinese government had a back door in that version of iMessage.
I’d be glad to be wrong.
abhibeckert@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yeah you’d be wrong. Apple is very open about how it the security model works - which is very similar to Signal and fully encrypted.
Their claims about how it operates have been confirmed by open source developers reverse engineering the protocol (e.g. Beeper).
winterayars@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
I’m sure Apple was dragged, kicking their feet and screaming all the way, into banning all the competing services too…
simplejack@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Correct. There is no Play Store in China, and although some of these apps have APKs that are hosted on the web, I’m imagining that the great firewall is going to block that eventually, if it’s they’re not already being blocked.
So, yeah, you’re going to have to side load APKs and IPAs if you want these apps in China. And hopefully you’re not installing a binary that has been compromised by the state.
moitoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
The point isn’t what they did or do. It’s what they claim. They claim to care about you and your privacy but comply with governments.
If they really care about privacy, they would allow sideloading of apps to circumvent bans. But, in fact, they created a walled garden where the walls follows the governments requirements to maximize the profits at the cost of the privacy.
simplejack@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Honestly, life on Android isn’t going to be much better.
The great firewall blocks Meta, Google, Signal, and Telegram’s sides. So no play store downloads, and no direct APK downloads.
Chinese users on iOS and Android basically have to pirate an IPA or APK, sideload, hope that shit wasn’t compromised by the state, and VPN out of the country.
Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
Yea but at least with android you can download and install apks and find a way around stuff. Apple has their stuff locked down and they make it difficult to do that sort of stuff.
simplejack@lemmy.world 6 months ago
True. That stuff can hamper curb peer to peer distribution, which Chinese citizens have been know to do, since it can bypass ISPs.
That said, if you’re pirating stuff in China and fucking with VPNs already, you’re probably tech literate enough to side load an IPA. It’s not too hard to do without jailbreaking these days.