Apple pulls US-funded Radio Free Europe app from Russia

AppleInsider

The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty news app has been removed from the App Store in Russia, in another case of the state mandating what apps are allowed.

The App Store is a powerful digital ecosystem.

The move comes less than a month after the Russian authorities had Apple remove Current Time, the independent media service and website run by the same Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) organization. According to RFE/RL, Apple notified the organization of the app's removal following a request by Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor.

In that previous case, Roskomnadzor is reported to have told Apple that the app contained "undesirable" material. This time, the regulator is said to have used the same word to describe RFE/RL's overall activities within Russia.

RFE/RL is a non-profit organization funded by the US Congress, via a grant from the United States Agency for Global Media. It was reportedly placed on Russia's list of "undesirable organizations" in February 2024.

"[This is] yet another example of how the Russian government sees truthful reporting as an existential threat," said RFE/RL president Stephen Capus at the time.

Apple has not commented on this specific case, nor the most recent one regarding RFE/RL's Current Time app. As an international business, though, it will always have to abide by the laws of the countries it operates in.

It is because of a Russian law that US firms operating in the country have been required to open local offices. Apple opened a corporate office there in February 2022.



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apple4thewin

But they stopped selling?

inkling

There are almost always ways to work around censorship.

Here's RFE's home page: https://about.rferl.org/service/russian-service/

Here's RFE's suggestions for getting around blocking: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-censorship-vpn-reporting/31737775.html

Suicidy

If this was done in the US or Europe regarding what the authorities call ‘disinformation’, the people screaming about this being done in Russia would be cheering it on.

jaure

And USA wants to ban TikTok

mrakoplas

It surprises me - with their values, they still operate App Store in Russia, so many years after the Russian aggression towards Ukraine. But, IBM operated in Nazi Germany too, so it is probably not so unexpected.

macgui

I'd like to see Apple not do any business with countries whose base philosophies are counter to our own and not be hypocritical. Pull out saying 'No iPhones for YOU!' Apple could afford not to do business with most of them... for a while. And who would build Apple's products? The US? Not hardly.

The tech is already expensive. We probably don't have the work force here to sustain the delivery times of Apple's stuff. What domestic labor would want for pay would drive the price up significantly. Then there are potential tariffs have been promised. That would miff the stockholders. Because principles are all well and good, but Apple's job is to make us money dammit! (I am not a stockholder.) 

Apple breaking ties with authoritarian governments and trying to develop tech and build products in the US would kill it faster than the loss of revenue not selling to them. 

jgreg728

Anyone else read “Radio Free Europe” in Michael Stipe’s voice?

Stabitha_Christie

macgui said:

I'd like to see Apple not do any business with countries whose base philosophies are counter to our own and not be hypocritical. 

What you are proposing is that business become an arm of the state or, put another way, Communism. 

Alex_V

Stabitha_Christie said:

What you are proposing is that business become an arm of the state or, put another way, Communism. 

That word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.