Apple must stop supporting the "Russian government’s efforts to suppress freedom of speech" and restore all the VPN services the company removed from its local App Store.
This is the request that 50 human rights organizations, media outlets, IT companies, journalistic groups, and public figures shared in an open letter on Monday, September 2.
Four VPN providers were the first to reportedly disappear from Russia's Apple App Store at the beginning of July. At that time, the Big Tech giant explained it did so upon a request order from the Russian censorship authority (Roskomnadzor). According to experts, at least 29 VPN apps are currently unavailable in Russia.
Don’t be puppeteered into human rights violations @Apple!The decision by Apple to remove VPN apps on the call of Russia’s censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, is alarming. Apple must restore VPN accessibility now + uphold freedom of expression for all. ⬇️https://t.co/iE7iZcA5mzSeptember 2, 2024
"By removing VPN services from its app store for Russians, Apple has chosen to undermine its policies that recognize the critical importance of an open society, freedom of information and expression," said Sarkis Darbinyan, cyber lawyer and co-founder of Russian digital rights group Roskomsvoboda.
A VPN (virtual private network) is a security software that not only encrypts people's internet connections but also spoofs their real IP address location. The latter skill is exactly the reason why citizens and visitors in Russia are forced to use such software to browse an increasingly more restricted internet.
Both Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) classify Russia as one of the worst countries for internet freedom due to high levels of internet censorship which have been intensifying since the invasion of Ukraine started. The likes of Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter) cannot be accessed unless using a VPN, alongside an ever-growing list of websites that include news sites and even official sites of some VPN providers.
Darbinyan said: "Apple must realize the consequences of its actions and fix the situation immediately, otherwise it will become complicit in the Russian authorities' offensive against civil space in the country and the establishment of total censorship."
Russia's views on VPNs
Experts at GreatFear confirmed that Apple removed 29 VPN providers from Russia's App Store starting from July 4, 2024, for a total of about 85 VPN apps that disappeared since March - a Roskomsvoboda spokesperson told me in an email on August 3. The providers affected include some of TechRadar's favorites such as NordVPN, Proton VPN, and Private Internet Access (PIA).
At the time, Apple sent a communication to some of the VPN companies to notify the removal "per demand from Roskomnadzor" as their app "includes content that is illegal in Russia."
The truth is, however, that the Kremlin has been looking into VPN usage since long before that. Many VPNs for Russia have been temporarily blocked over the years. As of November 2023, Russia had reportedly blocked the domain of at least eight of the 15 most popular VPN services across the country. HideMy.Name became the first VPN to challenge the Russian censor body in Court, which later branded the company as a foreign agent.
In May, digital rights activists and experts also called for Google-owned YouTube to refrain from helping the Kremlin censor free speech amid a spike in removals targeting several human rights YouTube channels and anti-war content.
Since March, a new law in Russia criminalized the spread of information about ways to circumvent internet restrictions.
Apple isn't the only Big Tech giant to help Russian authorities censor VPN services – and the wider web – either.
In 2022, for example, Google was forced to delist over 36 thousand URLs linked to VPN services – Surfshark reported at the time. In September of the same year, both Apple and Google removed Alexey Navalny's Smart Voting project app from their stores upon authorities' request. Apple also removed at least seven apps from its Russian App Store at Russian order that year, with 12 further applications disappearing in 2023.
Secure web browser providers Mozilla and Opera also got tangled up in the recent Russian VPN censorship efforts, receiving requests to block their anti-censorship plugin extensions in June. Both of the companies complied, but Mozilla later restored its VPN-like feature following backlash.
Experts confirmed that Google is currently resisting demands from Roskomnadzor to remove VPN apps from the Google Play Store and suggest that Apple should follow suit.
"We urge [Apple] to assess all blocking orders and requests in terms of their compliance with international human rights standards, and not to accommodate those that restrict access to protected expressions and services (applications), instead challenging their legality by all available means."
