Posted on 12/31/2009 10:17:33 PM PST by myknowledge
Bowing to Chinese law, Apple is reportedly blocking iPhone users in China from downloading applications about two figures Beijing considers "separatists": the Dalai Lama and exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
IDG News Service said at least five iPhone software programs related to the Tibetan spiritual leader are unavailable in Apple's China App Store along with one related to Kadeer.
IDG, publisher of Macworld, Computerworld, PC World and other magazines, said the move would make Apple the latest US technology giant to censor its services in China.
Asked for comment on Thursday by AFP, Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman, repeated a statement she made to IDG. "We continue to comply with local laws," Muller said. "Not all apps are available in every country."
China regularly blocks access to websites deemed sensitive and a number of US companies, including Microsoft, Cisco, Google and Yahoo!, have been hauled before the US Congress in recent years and accused of complicity in building what has been called the "Great Firewall of China".
US technology firms contend they must comply with China's laws in order to operate there.
China accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to establish an independent Tibet and photos of the exiled leader have been banned in Tibet for years.
The US-based Kadeer has been branded a "criminal" by Chinese authorities who have blamed her for bloody riots in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi, pitting mainly Muslim minority Uighurs against members of China's dominant Han group.
IDG said the paid and free iPhone applications that are unavailable in China provide inspirational quotes from the Dalai Lama or information about Nobel peace prize winners. The Dalai Lama is the 1989 Nobel peace laureate.
IDG said tests performed on four out of five iPhones at the Apple store in Beijing did not return any results for the term "Dalai". It said one did display the Dalai Lama applications but it was unclear why.
Test searches for a Kadeer application called "10 Conditions" did not return any results, it said.
IDG said Apple lets software developers choose the countries where their products appear but it was unlikely the Kadeer and Dalai Lama program developers had decided to make their products unavailable in China.
"It's of course very likely that it's Apple, not the developers, that are preventing certain apps from appearing," an unidentified China-based app developer told IDG.
James Sugrue, designer of the Dalai Quotes app, told IDG he "wasn't informed" by Apple that his program was unavailable in China.
"Apple reserve the right to do this sort of thing, and while from a censorship point of view I disagree with this, I can understand why they did," Sugrue said.
In August last year, access to iTunes was temporarily blocked for users in China after a pro-Tibet album became a hit on Apple's online music store.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Thursday said it had asked Apple about the reported blocking of Dalai Lama iPhone applications.
"In the spirit of transparency, the company should release a complete list of the censored applications - if indeed censorship is going on - and the criteria used to make the selections," RSF said in a statement.
"If Apple has agreed to remove products from the App Store under pressure from the authorities, the American company would join the club of those complicit in censorship of information in China," the France-based group said.
"This would be a big disappointment on the part of a company known for its creative spirit," the media rights group added.
Chinese telecom carrier China Unicom began selling the iPhone in China two months ago.
China regularly blocks access to websites deemed sensitive and a number of US companies, including Microsoft, Cisco, Google and Yahoo!, have been hauled before the US Congress in recent years and accused of complicity in building what has been called the "Great Firewall of China".
Those U.S. companies want to profit from the creation of an electronic police state in China rather than the freedom for the Chinese people.
Every one of these companies is run by the most feral Leftist ideologues, leading thousands of terminally smug and hip employees, all driving Priuses and saving the whales and supporting carbon taxes and dressed in expensive trashed black clothes when they go clubbing.
Silicon Valley - the most vile of the most vile of the most vile.
Absolutely! These guys pander to leftist emotion, while proving themselves to be the most heartless "evil capitalists" one could possibly conjure up. Look at Google, with their smarmy "don't be evil" motto. Just do a google of "tiananmen" on images.google.cn and see the smiling proletariats! Funny, no tanks, no protesters...
Something Bammy would love to do with FOX.
Weak. Make China conform to us or no products from U.S. As much as they have us by the short hairs in terms of our debt, they 100% need us technology wise. Call their bluff.
Silicon Valley - the most vile of the most vile of the most vile.
Time to melt the silicon with bombs and rename it Iron Valley.
The chip is coming. The chip is coming. Companies will not stand on principle for the most part. They want to make money and they will bow down to any government to do it.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
I am sure someone has already found a way around this.
The great thing about the Internet is that there ALWAYS seems to be a way around brute force censorship tactics.
The "official" model iPhone's in China that are sold by the state's phone company are crippled by order of the Chinese government. They cannot have a WIFI radio in them. But the vast majority of iPhone's in China are gray market, smuggled imports and are all jail-broken to work on multiple networks... complete with WIFI... and represent about 97% of the iPhones in China. If those can come in, I am certain that iPhone apps that are proscribed can come in also. Sample testing of iPhones found that five out of six "official" legal iPhones did not have the name "Dalai Lama" on them... but one out of six DID. Hmmmm... Hurray for that 18% of iPhone users thumbing their noses at the edicts who think different.
I had to do an end run around Apple Store to get the free app Dragon Diction because it’s not available from the Japanese store. It took my friend, who is a much better computer nerd than me, a total of five minutes to figure it out.
Great little app. I am already using it.
. . . the irony being that while they labor in their day jobs to increase useful information connectivity, their leftism does nothing but try to decrease useful information connectivity by censoring the price signals by which people worldwide endeavor to optimize the utility of their economic activities.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Thursday said it had asked Apple about the reported blocking of Dalai Lama iPhone applications. "In the spirit of transparency, the company should release a complete list of the censored applications -- if indeed censorship is going on -- and the criteria used to make the selections," RSF said in a statement. "If Apple has agreed to remove products from the App Store under pressure from the authorities, the American company would join the club of those complicit in censorship of information in China," the France-based group said.
I read on some leftist nitwit’s ‘blog the other day a condemnation of the Dalai Lama because he’s against homosexuality. Oops, I forgot, shouldn’t throw fodder down...
Apple builds a lot of boxes in Taiwan, mainland too?
Well... there are many products that are not allowed to be sold in the US because of various reasons - materials they are made of, or because they are used for illegal purposes. Some because they don’t meet certain “standards” set by our government (think some of the new Diesel engines).
So those companies don’t sell that particular item here, though they may sell other products.
I don’t condone China’s practice of squashing free expression. But gee... There are other popular US-made or designed products being sold in China. I guess we should rant and complain about all of those too? After all - doing business in China is an endorsement of their government, right?
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