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Apple Is Pulling Apps By Iranian Developers From The App Store To Comply With US Sanctions (buzzfeed.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple is pulling apps created by Iranian developers that are specifically designed for people in Iran from its App Stores to comply with US sanctions, The New York Times reports. Apple does not sell its products in Iran and an Iranian version of the Apple App Store doesn't exist, but smuggled iPhones are popular among wealthy Iranians. Iranian developers have created thousands of apps for these users and offer them on App Stores in other countries including the US App Store. For the last few weeks, Apple has been removing Iranian food delivery and shopping apps, and on Thursday, it removed Snapp, an Uber-like ride hailing app that is popular in Iran.
You just rent your hardware and software from Apple, you don't own it. Silly people.
Apple also recently removed VPN apps used by Chinese people to avoid the Great Firewall and read and say things their govt doesn't want them to read and say, after pressure from the Chinese government.
Central control is dangerous, even when the party with the control is a "good guy". They can be leaned on by others with the power to hurt them, and have to do that other's bidding. Or they can just screw up and brick 100 million IoT devices which are centrally controlled.
The original idea of the internet was DEcentralization, but consumer behavior has pushed towards more and more centralization. Not just Apple, look also to Facebook and others gaining control over what used to be a distributed communication network. That centralization plays right into the hands of authoritarian all over the world who see themself as the masters of everyone else.
Be careful! If we destroy the decentralized internet, it will be very hard to ever get it back.
How is Iran a rogue nation? What right do we have to criticise them? A country that has not posed a threat to anyone wants the right to defend itself from those (including the US) that threaten it. Why shouldn't they? Instead going around threatening countries the one thing that would work far better would be an incentive to take a different path. The US has never tried that. The Iranians are not a poor people as you suggest and if you went there you would be shocked by how different it is to the propaganda on TV. Iraq was a major ally of ours in that area until out of the blue we destroyed a civilised country as thanks for helping us. We did not beat Iraq as they relied on us for their defence so in reality we beat ourselves. Yes, Iraq gassed Kurds with gas we supplied and using aircraft we were the ground crew for and knew the flight plans of. They attacked Iran for us several times with WMDs we gave them. So Iran has good reason to believe that we will do harm and that they do have good reason to do all they can to defend themselves and also that doing what the US is bullying them to do will not get a good result. Why should they, a long time enemy expect better than a long time ally? They have no reason whatsoever to roll over and every reason to develop whatever they can to defend themselves.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
Go look up the number of times in history that Iran has attacked another country.
Then go look up the number of times that another country has attacked Iran.
Then, realize you've been duped by effective propaganda, and stop it.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese