Apple’s Apple Store continues censoring VPN apps in Russia

The App Censorship Project has discovered that the scale of VPN removal in Russia is even more extensive than previously reported. Between early July and September 18, 2024, Apple silently removed 60 VPN apps from the local App Store, including several leading VPN services. This number is significantly higher than the 25 VPN apps publicly acknowledged by Russia’s censorship body, Roskomnadzor.
This revelation highlights the ongoing efforts of the Russian government to restrict access to VPN services, which are widely used to circumvent internet censorship and access blocked websites. The disappearance of these VPN apps from the App Store further limits the options available to Russian users seeking to bypass internet restrictions.
Chiara Castro for TechRadar:
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While the Kremlin has been targeting VPN tools for longer than a few months, the recent wave of removals began on July 4 when at least four VPN apps reportedly disappeared from the local Apple App Store. At the beginning of September, 50 human rights organizations, media outlets, IT companies, journalistic groups, and public figures wrote an open letter calling on Apple to “immediately restore” VPN apps to its Russian App Store. At that time, though, experts still believed the toll of removed VPN apps was set at 29.
These results shed new light on the scale of VPN censorship in Russia. For starters, the report uncovers a significant discrepancy between the number of applications removed that authorities acknowledged (25) and the actual figure (around 60) suggesting the scale of VPN removals is much larger.
Researchers also tracked removal patterns to see how these were concentrated on specific dates, suggesting coordinated actions. All in all, the findings show that Apple “continues to remove VPN apps from the Russia App Store without public acknowledgment, affecting more than 20% of identified VPN apps,” the report reads.
According to Ismail, Apple actively shares the blame for helping the Kremlin censor the web. “By unilaterally restricting access to these essential tools without transparency or due process, Apple is complicit in enabling government censorship. We demand that Apple uphold its commitment to human rights and provide a clear explanation for these actions.”

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MacDailyNews Take: Of what is the Russian government afraid?
Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. – Potter Stewart
Those who want safety, security, and privacy will stick to Apple’s App Store, but a single point of control is always a danger, especially when it comes to capricious censorship (see: pre-Musk Twitter, Apple’s App Store in China, etc.).
iPhone and iPad users must, like Mac users, have the ability to install third-party apps; even if they never do, for it will keep Apple honest. The ability to ban an app loses all power when it’s simply available in another App Store. – MacDailyNews, December 13, 2022

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