Thursday, January 12, 2023 1:36 pm1 Comment

• News

Following numerous examples that Apple’s opaque decision-making process threatens freedom of expression in authoritarian countries such as China and Russia, the company has promised to enhance disclosures about why it expels certain apps from its App Store.

Patrick McGee for Financial Times:

Activist investors secured the commitment from Apple earlier this month, according to three people familiar with the agreement. Last March nearly a third of shareholders at its annual meeting backed a resolution calling for greater transparency in its relations with foreign governments.

Petitioners led by Azzad Asset Management, a faith-based investor in the US, and British activist investment platform Tulipshare had called on Apple to give more detail on why certain apps were pulled from the App Store after some Bible and Koran study tools were inexplicably banned from China in late 2021.

The company has long been criticised for acquiescing to foreign governments’ requests that certain apps be removed. Encrypted messaging tools WhatsApp and Signal are not allowed in China’s App Store, for instance, nor are The New York Times or some social media apps.

It will now give investors more detail about apps that are taken down in its Transparency Report…

MacDailyNews Take: It’s hardly inexplicable: Bible and Koran study tools were banned from Apple’s App Store in China because communism and religion cannot coexist.

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