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Apple is locking down the iPhone App Store to comply with a new law in China
(www.theverge.com)
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this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
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Technology
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If Apple follows EU guidelines and opens their ecosystem to third-party app stores, like f Droid. Then this really won't be an issue
I'm quite sure they will only allow this in EU (and maybe USA). If they do allow this in China, Regime will most probably ban every alternative app Store... if this is not already banned.
Thought and prayers to the people of china. I feel like they lost everything in 1989. Still hope they find the strength to get rid of this depressing system.
I feel the same about the US.
I don't know if this was just a joke or you really mean it that way.
I would partially agree that there are a lot of similarities between Mao and Trump, but current situation in USA is nowhere near current situation in china.
Not sure if this would work in China, but... I have a de-Googled bootloader-locked Huawei tablet (don't ask, it was cheap)... in the EU, but had to jump through some hoops to make it usable... and kind of did it, thanks to F-Droid, APKPure, and Gspace.
iPhones might be more tightly locked, but maybe people will find similar workarounds.
I think the issue is they’ll have to do much more work to get to those stores if they become remotely popular as a vector for bypassing censorship.
The minute people are using f-droid at scale to bypass controls and censorship, f-droid is going to get firewalled if it isn’t already.
China isn’t on the open internet. It’s a game of whack-a-mole for them, but they’re pretty good at it and throw a lot of bodies at this.
The average user won’t be jumping through the hoops required to make this work.
F-Droid has censorship resistance built in, it lets you share apps locally via bluetooth. It would be difficult, but I can imagine a bunch of protestors sharing apps, getting a mesh communication network going (like briar), all without clearnet access.
Not to mention lots of countries have "shut down internet access" in their protest playbook, so the freedom of speech, human rights, tech-bros are building the technology to work without internet.
Aren't android phones sold in China? Because they have been able to sideload apps since forever
From what I read technically "Android" is used as the most popular smartphone OS in China. But that's only because android is the foundation of costume Chinese OS that comes without any google services (nice) but is also highly restricted against side loading. Of course like always ways should exist to workaround those restrictions.
But to be honest getting information about all the restrictions people in china need to suffer from getting harder l with every day since they get encapsulated more and more.
They removed google but added their own state spyware. If you block the phone from phoning home (with Tracker Control, for example), the phone will still collect and save (into a user-inaccessible part of the phone) all those metrics, and eventually die, since it can't store any more. I got 6 months out of my Chinese phone, before it filled up its metrics memory and automatically shut down permanently.
Third party app stores have zero bearing on this matter. China wants every developer to be registered. If new app stores were allowed, then those stores would have to comply and have all their developers registered.
This has nothing to do with App Store monopolies. Not even sure how the two got mixed together.
Apple makes the situation worse, by having an exclusive app store, and not allowing people to load apps directly. Without a developer key, having to renew every week, etc it's effectively not allowing.
F Droid is currently accessible from China, I believe. Even if it isn't, you can share Android apps via Bluetooth, nearby. It's a far more partitionable and repairable situation with f Droid then with the Apple store.
So if iOS allows other app stores access, then that will give people more options inside of China
The number of stores are irrelevant, not sure how you keep missing this. And I’m not sure why you think just because you have more stores, it will somehow circumvent the new law.
If you add 3 more App Stores, the outcome will be most apps will be sold in all of them, I mean why wouldn’t you want your product in as many stores as possible? Again, not sure why you think more stores means anything or can be used to circumvent Chinese laws.
And China won’t forget about F Droid. If they want devs registered, then it’s going to hit their nation, not a specific company. They will all be brought under the new rule. One store, hundred stores, google, Apple, whomever.
The stores aren't relevant, the operating system allowing apps to run that aren't signed by an Apple certificate is the important thing
Given the choice to sideload apps, I'm sure it wouldn't matter what store you get it from--just the fact that you can install the apps. I'm sure people can skirt developer registration.
Exactly. The store is irrelevant, registration is what China is after.
Also, you’re wrong about developers bypassing registration. That kind of shit isn’t possible in China.
So it's the same story for Android?
Yup, but since Google is not in China, we don't hear about Google complying, but every other Chinese app store is complying with this new law.
Yup
Unless of course the app makes API requests to its backend, which is blocked in China.