“More than half a billion Chinese smartphone users face increased monitoring of their mobile app usage thanks to new laws targeting operators including Apple Inc.” David Ramli reports for Bloomberg. “App stores and providers must establish the identity of users, while monitoring and reporting postings that contain banned content. The legitimacy of developers who post apps for download must also be verified, according to new rules posted on the Cyberspace Administration of China’s website.”
“All app stores and providers are now required to keep a record of users’ activity for 60 days,” Ramli reports. “The regulations mark one of the most comprehensive efforts so far to oversee mobile applications, which are mushrooming in popularity alongside smartphone use. They’re part of a broader effort by President Xi Jinping’s government to clamp down on content deemed sensitive — anything from critiques of the Communist Party to porn.”
Ramli reports, “The Cyberspace Administration has become a key force shaping China’s internet landscape in the two years since Xi established it, churning out regulations to curb public criticism and other perceived threats to the government.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in May:
Business and political models that fly in the face of human nature are doomed to failure.
Apple is moving with human nature. Humans seek privacy. Privacy is a human right. Humans seek freedom of speech, thought, and expression. These, too, are human rights.
China’s government is fighting against the tide of human nature on these fronts. Apple is flowing with it; indeed, helping to propel it.
In the end, Apple’s ideas will win and China’s government’s will lose. Those who try to thwart human nature are doomed to failure.
SEE ALSO:
China says Apple, app developers must track identities of users and developers – June 28, 2016
Apple’s battle with China offers a stark reminder of geopolitical risks – May 11, 2016
Apple’s Tim Cook to visit China for high-level government meetings later this month – May 6, 2016
Apple CEO Cook ‘pretty confident’ of soon resuming movie and book sales in China – May 3, 2016
Apple’s biggest China problem: iPhone’s strong encryption – May 2, 2016
The New Yorker: What Apple has to fear from China – April 30, 2016
Why Carl Icahn is wrong about Apple and China – April 29, 2016
Carl Icahn out of Apple over worries about China’s ‘dictatorship’ government – April 29, 2016
Apple stock falls as Carl Icahn dumps all of his shares – April 29, 2016
Carl Icahn dumps all of his Apple shares; stock drops – April 28, 2016
Apple reports earnings miss in Q216 – April 26, 2016
China could slam door on Apple, says top global risk expert – April 25, 2016
China’s increasing censorship hits Apple, but Apple might punch back – April 22, 2016
China shutters Apple’s online book and movie services – April 22, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook joins Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights’ board of directors – April 6, 2016
If Apple bend in front of these unacceptable and scandalous Chinese mesures, I think I will come back to my Nokia 3310 and stop feeding Apple brand!
Apple’s laudable stance on privacy would seem to fly in the face of these latest pronouncements from Beijing. It will be interesting to see who blinks first…and it won’t be Apple!
=:~)
BIG MAO IS WATCHING YOU
