The actual problem is not that Apple removed the app. It's that there is no other way to install the app if Apple removes it from their store.

I disagree. I think the problem is that Apple is choosing to support dictators by removing this app.

The ability to side load apps is a smokescreen because only 1% of people would use any alternate means.

So even if they had alternate app stores, Apple removing it from the main App Store is egregious.

Similar to how it’s terrible that Google removed it even though it’s available in alternate stores.

(Of course Apple should allow sideloading and other app stores)

> I disagree. I think the problem is that Apple is choosing to support dictators by removing this app.

Is he still a dictator if he would win contested elections?

The polling on Putin in Russia is pretty darn clearcut, don't see how you can look at the numbers I do and conclude anything other than that Putin has the tacit support of most of the population.

Take a look at the Soviet bloc elections. They won by big margins through voter suppression and much more.

Castro was elected for what, 50 years. He was definitely a dictator.

There was (is) voter suppression in the US and the civil rights movement directly worked to overturn polls that showed that only white governors and mayors in the south will win.

I don’t think Russian polls can be interpreted fairly to mean Putin has the tacit support of most of the population. Putin’s opponents are jailed and they are billionaires. If I get a poll, I’m not going to answer honestly due to fear.

I can't imagine how such an app could be in any way complicated. Why is it not just a website?

Thanks. Honestly though I'm surprised, I would have thought blocking specific HTTPS websites wasn't so easy.

HTTPS reveals domain, only subdomain/folder is encrypted.

The domain is still typically passed unencrypted with HTTPS

Why wouldn’t they just force other app stores to pull the app too?

Such as F-Droid?

Any reason they can’t just block the site? Is F-Droid a good option for this kind of mobile app?

I guess you can say they wind up playing whack-a-mole with new App Store and websites but that doesn’t seem ideal either. Russians can plant something too.

And Google removed it too. So are users downloading it now from 3rd-party app stores?

Longer Streisand effect

The problem is that everyone is now talking about the app and the prisoner. Good luck putting the genie back in the bottle.

Are you trying to appeal, that because majority of people believe something contrary to the opinion of the parent comment, he is wrong?

What makes you think they know better, than him?

> How many of Russia's Apple employees

I don't think there is any: Apple has never operated in Russia directly and I doubt there are employees working remotely from Russia.

Apple likely does not have engineers, designers, or execs in Russia… but they have Russian Apple stores etc. whom are all Apple employees.

> What makes you think you know better what is good for the Russian people and the opposition groups than Russians and the opposition groups themselves?

Because if regime's economy collapses, the regime will collapse sooner.

Collapsing economies simply make autocrats double down even harder on autocracy. North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Zimbabwe. There are numerous examples of this. It simply multiplies the misery.

Why is this even relevant? You always have to keep heads of your enemies down. That's basic common sense.

Dictatorships are the enemies of the Free World. Or, do you think they are friends, perhaps?

They are your enemies, and you keep their economies ruined.

-1 Point for faiure to distinguish between the mobsters in charge and general population

-1 point for dillusional idea that cuba is an enemy or a threat to the us or anyone fir that matter

-1 point fir lack of self-reflection on how free we are becoming

-1 point for cruelty

I am not cruel, I am a follower of strong humanist beliefs. Life in shit is worse than death, way worse. I will at least give people a choice of two. If you force people to live in shit, just so they can live, you are cruel.

I am very reflective. I see the West turning into a serial facilitator of rogue, and fascist regimes for some "special relationships." If they deserve fire for that, I think they really should. It's been 20 years since 9/11, and USA is still sucking up to the Saudi Regime for really nothing of benefit — this is what I will call a real lack of self-reflection.

Cuba is not a threat, but it very much will be if you leave its neck out of your hands for a second. The Cuban state is the biggest threat to Cuban people. Thank them for good healthcare, but then smack them good for near starving their people despite Cuba being chock full of agricultural land for a country of 10M, inventing silly excuses for it, and jailing anybody pointing a finger on that.

I see the mob in charge, very much see. I personally knew people who lost all their livelihood to having their business robbed, and seized. The general population don't want you, the West to keep feeding Putin's bottomless mouth. They are not idiots. They see every gram of food the West gives the regime, the regime uses to grow bigger, and stronger, and then bite, and rob them even more.

Actually that's a reasonable point, sure. My counter is that it should be proportionate. North Korea? Absolutely, they're the absolute bottom of the barrel. Full economic sanctions are reasonable, I think we both agree.

China and Russia are not like North Korea though. Citizens generally enjoy a considerable degree of freedom of movement, economic freedoms and even rights to travel abroad. To the extent that these rights are curtailed or refused we should apply increasing degrees of pressure. In fact I think we don't apply enough pressure, particularly to China. There's a lot more we could do. What we should do is emphasise that crimes such as the oppression of the Uighurs should have consequences, and we're not doing that enough right now.

I'm particularly concerned about China's application to join the Asia-Pacific trade pact, the CPTPP. The association was founded by the US in order to form a united front against China, but the US pulled out in 2017. So we now face a real possibility a trade pact intended to contain China will end up helping China contain US economic influence in the region. Nice one.

Absolute bans and boycotts are simply not appropriate though, they would disproportionately hurt ordinary Chinese, including those under the worst oppression and would help China promote a nationalistic us versus them attitude. It would also remove any ability to apply increasing pressure to any further oppressive moves because we'd have no pressure left to apply. So I fully agree with the principle, you're quit right these regimes are our enemy, but not the all-or-nothing implementation.

Regime collapse doesn't mean something better will replace it. Russia collapsed end of the 80s, but what replaced it leaves a lot to be desired...

Well, yes. But for Russia's former satellite states things definitely improved.

I think you cherry-picked here. You are thinking about the Baltics and forgetting about places like Uzbekistan (now broke) and Kazakhstan (rich but authoritarian). And even if you say these are former republics rather than satellites, think of the mess that is Serbia.

The fall of the USSR may have been overall a good thing and even inevitable, as with any huge disruption it was not an unequivocal good thing for every single person.

> I think you cherry-picked here. You are thinking about the Baltics and forgetting about places like Uzbekistan

The parent did not cherry pick, they didn't go far enough. It was overwhelmingly positive regardless of Kazakhstan or Serbia.

East Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Czechia, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria.

Estonia represses 7% of its population.

It represses it so much, that the repressed ethnic Russians gang up, and go lighting up the Russian embassy from time to time, as a gratitude for Mr. Putin's attempts at "liberating" them.

We are probably talking about two different 7% of people.

Your comment is also beside the point. Russia is likely no better than Estonia. It does not mean Estonia is not worse than other EU countries, including former members of USSR.

East Germany, Baltics, Poland, Romania and many others.

> huge disruption it was not an unequivocal good thing for every single person.

I think even in the Central Asian North Korea — Uzbekistan, a person now lives more freely, and richer than the wealthiest USSR citizens did.

Have you ever googled, bro?

>> After the collapse of the USSR, economic reforms were not fully implemented in Uzbekistan, conditions for the development of medium and small businesses were not created, corruption took root, and unemployment increased. Many wonder: if it is better now than in the past, why have about two to five million Uzbek citizens left their country in search of work?

via bbs.com (!!!) https://www.bbc.com/russian/international/2014/10/141015_uzb...

.. and where do you think they migrated to, from their country that is on its way to Middle Ages? To Putin's dark regime's Russia, nowhere else, working there as construction and road workers etc.

You've got a good chance to compare your reality with real reality, my friend.

> Have you ever googled, bro?

I didn't, but I know this better than you.

Uzbekistan, a North Korea redux it be, but you can

1. now get a coca cola there.

2. food is on the shelves, including meat

3. buy property, instead of being shot for doing so

4. leave the country, back in USSR there were no option to go work anywhere as a construction worker to earn real cash.

If you really like your USSR wonderland communist paradise, please go. The immigration route to North Korea, or Cuba is open for you.

All those Uzbeks shot for buying property should rise from the grave and haunt you for being such a troll. Must be millions of them. You should be very afraid. But maybe a Coca Cola mist will keep them at bay? Maybe if you chant Adam Smith's name while you do it?

In post cold war Europe it was mostly the case. Russia is a lot less of a threat to the world, and its own citizens. I for one could freely leave Russia, which would require non-trivial effort in USSR.

And it did, because the West left half way, and never backed Yelzin at finally dismantling the system.

It was critical.

And after he had his second stroke, he was a walking vegetable basically, and the opportunity was lost.

You are very demoralised.

And then we likely have a pure dictatorship with the worlds second biggest nuclear arsenal and thousands of Russians will likely die from things like starvation and being killed by the new regime (or the old while it dies). No-one wins by killing off a regime. That is "let's bomb this country into democracy" thinking.

It is a pure dictatorship for a while now.