2020-08-07
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Here's a quote from:
https://protonmail.com/blog/apple-app-store-antitrust/
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While it is improper (and illegal) to leverage market dominance
for anti-competitive purposes, leveraging this power to suppress
digital freedom is simply unethical, and it is long overdue that
somebody called out Apple for this behavior. As first-hand
witnesses to this behavior, we can share our story.
In January 2020, ProtonVPN submitted an update of its iOS app
description in the App Store. The new description highlighted
ProtonVPN’s features, including the ability to “unblock censored
websites” with the app.
Even though ProtonVPN had been in the App Store since 2018 and the
basic functionality of our VPN has not changed, Apple abruptly
rejected the new app version and threatened to remove ProtonVPN
entirely. They demanded that we remove this language around
anti-censorship on the grounds that freedom of speech is severely
limited in some countries. The options are comply or be removed
from the App Store. What is most troubling is that Apple requested
the removal of the language around censorship in ALL countries
where our app is available, in effect doing the bidding of
authoritarian governments even in countries where freedom of
speech is protected.
It is true that in countries around the world, such as China,
South Sudan, and Saudi Arabia, freedom of speech is indeed
severely limited, and thousands of activists have been killed or
imprisoned for expressing themselves. However, by conceding to
tyrants and enforcing the lowest common denominator, Apple is
ignoring internationally recognized human rights and forfeiting
progress we all enjoy and which activists have paid for with
their lives.
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