Slashdot Mirror
Activists Angry After Apple Axes Anti-Firewall App
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "BBC reports that Chinese web users are criticizing Apple after the company pulled a free iPhone app called OpenDoor, which enables users to bypass firewalls and access restricted internet sites. The developers of OpenDoor — who wish to remain anonymous — told Radio Netherlands that Apple removed the app because it 'includes content that is illegal in China.' 'It is unclear to us how a simple browser app could include illegal contents, since it's the user's own choosing of what websites to view,' say the developers. 'Using the same definition, wouldn't all browser apps, including Apple's own Safari and Google's Chrome, include illegal contents?' Chinese internet users were disappointed by the move by Apple. Zhou Shuguang, a prominent Chinese blogger and citizen journalist, told U.S.-based Radio Free Asia that Apple had taken away one of the tools which internet users in China relied on to circumvent the country's great firewall. 'Apple is determined to have a share of the huge cake which is the Chinese internet market. Without strict self-censorship, it cannot enter the Chinese market,' says one Chinese user disappointed by the move by Apple."
.... however, you can install apps from outside the Play Store on Android.
Apple are pretty much control freaks at the best of times. But you expect to be controlled one way or another if you buy in to a closed OS. And the US is just as controlling as China when they demand back doors to be included in security products to bypass encryption to spy on your data. If you think your in anyway living in a free country, no matter where you live, , then you must be high on something.
"If you don't like that, consider the alternatives. No, let me correct that, the alternative. "NO IPHONE IN CHINA.""
That's a better alternative.