Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has demanded that Apple and Alphabet’s Google ban Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s app from their stores, Interfax news agency reported on Friday.
Navalny began actively promoting the app after the authorities last month blocked access to his main website and 49 other associated sites and called for blocking social media linked to him.
Roskomnadzor said that the app “is used to promote and implement the activities of extremist organizations.”
MacDailyNews Take: Which might sound like a familiar refrain in some other countries around the world.
Roskomnadzor cited a Russian court ruling that found jailed Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation an extremist organisation and banned it. Navalny’s allies have published news and blogs through the app after Roskomnadzor blocked their websites.
MacDailyNews Take: By the way, for those concerned about Apple’s recent announcement that the next version of iOS will install a mass surveillance backdoor into Apple devices, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF) has created a petition to let users speak out.
The EFF petition, which we have signed and recommend that our readers sign as well, reads as follows:
Don’t Scan Our Phones
The “child safety” changes Apple plans to install on iOS 15 and macOS Monterey undermine user privacy, and break the promise of end-to-end encryption.
I urge Apple to reconsider these systems. Continuous scanning of images won’t make kids safer, and may well put more of them in danger. Installing the photo-scanning software on our phones will spur governments around the world to ask for more surveillance and censorship abilities than they already have.
Sincerely,
SIGNED
Your Name