Apple eliminated numerous digital personal community (VPN) apps in Russia from its App Retailer on July 4, 2024, following a request by Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor, Russian information media reported.
This consists of the cellular apps of 25 VPN service suppliers, together with ProtonVPN, Crimson Defend VPN, NordVPN and Le VPN, in accordance to MediaZona. It is value noting that NordVPN beforehand shut down all its Russian servers in March 2019.
“Apple’s actions, motivated by a want to retain income from the Russian market, actively assist an authoritarian regime,” Crimson Defend VPN mentioned in an announcement. “This isn’t simply reckless however against the law in opposition to civil society.”
In an analogous discover, Le VPN mentioned the takedown was carried out in accordance with No. 7 of Article 15.1 of the Federal Regulation dated July 27, 2006, No. 149-FZ “On Info, Info Applied sciences and Info Safety” and that its app was eliminated even earlier than it acquired the official discover from the watchdog.
To that finish, the VPN providers have been included within the “Unified register” of web assets prohibited for public distribution in Russia.
“This occasion marks a big step in Roskomnadzor’s ongoing efforts to manage web entry and content material inside Russian territory,” it mentioned.
To counter the widespread crackdown, Le VPN has since launched another service referred to as Le VPN Give that it says “lets you connect with our secret servers utilizing third-party open-source software program and obfuscated VPN connections.”
The event is a part of a sequence of censorship strikes Kremlin has introduced for the reason that begin of the Russo-Ukrainian battle in February 2022 that has resulted within the blockade of a number of media shops in addition to social media apps resembling Fb, Instagram, and X.
