In Russia, new protectionist legislation takes aim at Apple, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, and other U.S. media and tech companies, with more laws being prepped.
Vladimir Kozlov for The Hollywood Reporter:
Under a piece of legislation that comes into effect July 1, all computers and mobile devices sold in Russia will have to have preinstalled Russian software, which some foreign tech companies, including Apple, are unwilling to do.
In Apple’s case, the U.S. tech giant would have to preinstall a web browser developed by Russian online giant Yandex and other applications, incurring extra costs for technological developments and license fees. Apple didn’t reply to The Hollywood Reporter‘s request for comment. However, earlier, several companies, including Apple, Google, Samsung and Dell, made futile calls on Russian authorities not to pass the legislation…
Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter are currently in breach of Russian legislation enacted three years ago that requires Russians’ personal data to be stored in Russia. While LinkedIn, which openly declined to comply with the new law, was immediately blocked, Facebook and Twitter have been less vocal about the legislation, but they continue to store their Russian users’ personal data outside of the country… Meanwhile, Russian operations’ future for global streaming services, such as Netflix and Apple TV+, remains unclear.
MacDailyNews Take: Unless Russian legislators reverse course, the black market for iPhones in Russia sounds like it’s about to explode! (Of course, the Russian legislators responsible for this probably control a good portion of the black market for iPhones in Russia, so, if anything, they’ll want to hasten, not reverse, the process.)
Possibly Putin’s lap dog can help…/s 🤣
American Tech Companies should stay out of Russia and China where they steal our IP!
“Steal IP”? When? Where?
Russian’s biggest IT company Yandex had both search and maps services before Google. And Russian IT sector’s exports is bigger than even military equipment.
The law is only a frame, meaning it is not decided which types of devices will be subject to the regulation (since Apple does not have a monopoly, unlike Google, it might be excluded).