Kremlin says nyet to iPhone ahead of presidential election
The Russian government has told officials preparing for the country's 2024 presidential election not to use iPhones, because there is worry that spies have hacked the phones.
Moscow
Russia is gearing up for another presidential election in 2024, but preparations for it have involved a message to tighten security, and that includes ditching the iPhone.
Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy head of the presidential administration, informed domestic political officials at a government seminar that they will need to switch to different phones by April 1, reported russian newspaper Kommersant according to Reuters.
"It's all over for the iPhone: either throw it away or give it to the children," one unnamed meeting participant allegedly said. "Everyone will have to do it in March."
A Kremlin spokesman claimed he couldn't confirm the report, but insisted that smartphones shouldn't be used for official business. "Any smartphone has a fairly transparent mechanism, no matter what operating system it has - Android or iOS. Naturally, they are not used for official purposes," said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
To aid with the change, the government is expected to issue other smartphones. Also, while the order applies against officials working in domestic politics, it may not affect those working in other areas of government.
The accusation of spying by Western intelligence agencies isn't the first time that Apple has been roped into claims of interference in Russian political affairs.
In 2021, Russian watchdog group Roskomnadzor demanded that Apple and Google remove an app by opposition leader Alexi Navalny, under claims it was promoting an "extremist organization." Apple later restored the app.
In March 2022, it was alleged that Russian agents used old-school threats to demand the removal of a protest vote app, including visits to executive homes and a threat of prison.
Read on AppleInsider
Moscow
Russia is gearing up for another presidential election in 2024, but preparations for it have involved a message to tighten security, and that includes ditching the iPhone.
Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy head of the presidential administration, informed domestic political officials at a government seminar that they will need to switch to different phones by April 1, reported russian newspaper Kommersant according to Reuters.
"It's all over for the iPhone: either throw it away or give it to the children," one unnamed meeting participant allegedly said. "Everyone will have to do it in March."
A Kremlin spokesman claimed he couldn't confirm the report, but insisted that smartphones shouldn't be used for official business. "Any smartphone has a fairly transparent mechanism, no matter what operating system it has - Android or iOS. Naturally, they are not used for official purposes," said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
To aid with the change, the government is expected to issue other smartphones. Also, while the order applies against officials working in domestic politics, it may not affect those working in other areas of government.
The accusation of spying by Western intelligence agencies isn't the first time that Apple has been roped into claims of interference in Russian political affairs.
In 2021, Russian watchdog group Roskomnadzor demanded that Apple and Google remove an app by opposition leader Alexi Navalny, under claims it was promoting an "extremist organization." Apple later restored the app.
In March 2022, it was alleged that Russian agents used old-school threats to demand the removal of a protest vote app, including visits to executive homes and a threat of prison.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
This is from a few years ago:
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/senators-propose-ban-on-huawei-solar-inverters-citing-national-security-thr#gs.kn7ije
And this from further back:
https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-30378966.html
How long before a 'National Security' card gets into Monopoly? LOL
Many sleepless nights for Xi as he awaited for the results fo his reelection;
The U.S., and its allies, consider installation of critical infrastructure sourced from authoritarian adversaries to be of concern, especially those driven by mercantilist policies of China's State Owned Enterprises with the goal of reducing Western competition. See Huawei Telecom, noted Chinese State Owned Enterprise.
Hence why Germany, whose primary trading partner is China, has been so slow to pull Huawei telecom equipment from its infrastructure, even though there were EU based companies that could provide the same, albeit at a higher cost.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/08/1154315168/germany-china-huawei-restrictions
China just can't get a break...
I'm not drawing moral equivalency. I'm highlighting examples.
It's not the end of the world.
That said, it's a known fact that China and Russia vigorously control what information flows in their countries. Particularly information critical of the government. Now one can argue that the US does the same thing via large media companies putting a "spin" on information which is critical of their government, which leads most people to the conclusion that the information is invalid (and in democracy, all you need is to convince the majority of people about something). However, that's still not the same thing as actively censoring information and trying to imprison/eliminate people who spread it. And I'm not talking about classified documents (ala Snowden), just people being critical of a government's actions.
So you can keep doing these equivalency experiments, but I'll never believe that a government which needs to censor and control critics is a valid government.
China has full control over the Internet. USA doesn't.
US FBI have complained how Apple refuses to build a backdoor. Apple said no and it's been respected. In China, you have no choice.
You have right to encryption, not so in China where most of the traffic has to be non-SSL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_China
Both links made that clear.
So while paranoia about domestic and foreign government spying is the "same" by consumers, in reality, the West has many more controls over whom is spied on, where they are allowed to be spied on, how the data is collected, how the data is stored, and how data is dispersed. Of course, you are aware of that, and would agree that Xi Jinping and Putin have the ability to spy on anyone they want, foreign or domestic, without question, anytime, with the assistance of any Chinese company, including Huawei.
I'm quite certain that Donald Trump previously, and Joe Biden currently, have not had that ability.
Or another, Crypto AG.
I'm sure you would have been equally sure of things before he blew the top off of those particular cans of worms.
But this isn't about politics, for as much as you want it to be. It's a response to the notion of paranoia, independently of political colours, types of government or whatnot.