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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.
#!/bin/perl -sp0777iX+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0j]dsj $/=unpack('H*',$_);$_=`echo 16dio\U$k"SK$/SM$n\EsN0p[lN*1 lK[d2%Sa2/d0$^Ixp"|dc`;s/\W//g;$_=pack('H*',/((..)*)$/)
Way to go Trump administration! This is how we will make peace with the Iranian people.
Cowards.
Now that takes courage!
#DeleteFacebook
To be in Iran, ragheads.
Did something just happen to trigger this? The decades old US sanctions against Iran were partially lifted on January 16, 2016. Why does Apple suddenly feel the need to clamp down now?
You just rent your hardware and software from Apple, you don't own it. Silly people.
BSD addicts, flame t4at *BSD is
Economic sanctions against a less-developed nation with economic problems means poverty, slower development, and a clear path of blame for the suffering and death of civilians including children.
We rolled tanks straight into Baghdad. Don't tell me we're not geared up to kick Iran's ass. Bush dropped sacks of food before starting the war to make sure the Iranian people had a chance of eating while we disrupted their economy with tanks; economic sanctions are the exact opposite. Why threaten an inconvenience to the rich and a total destruction of life and livelihood to the poor when we can just huff and puff and kick their ass in?
The same thing happened to Cuba. Half a century of sanctions and they got hospitals for the rich and for tourists, and ... festering shitholes that will probably kill you with sepsis for the poor. Cuba was a country of few elite and many destitute. Castro didn't care; he blamed us (convenient) and lived a life of luxury into old age.
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That's perfectly OK. Just side load those apps. Oh, wait, this was an Apple story wasn't it. Well then just throw the phone away. If you can't install apps from the official store and can't side load apparently Apple is trying to tell you something. You just need to figure out what they are saying. Hint: It sounds something like "get a different phone".
Want to find out what it does, but too lazy to spin a VM.
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.
...removing Iranian food delivery and shopping apps, and on Thursday, it removed Snapp, an Uber-like ride hailing app that is popular in Iran.
Thus neutralising yet another key component of Iran's uranium enrichment industry's supply chain ... or not.
A country that threatens Israel with nuclear obliteration can miss out on a few iphone apps.
Tried it (in a VM), couldn't get it to run.
Maybe Slashdot ate half of it...
one poke in the eye at a time.
... the more Iranians use smartphones the more data the various US govt agencies gather about Iran.
the > < no doubt:
http://www.cypherspace.org/rsa/
... who now will be motivated to develop their own alternatives
Technology that is ubiquitous like the iphone actually are excellent tools to help integrate a sanctioned group into willful compliance to the wishes of the sanctioning group by showing the benefit of compliance. Technology that is rare and weaponizable should be restricted. Technology export policy should be a scalpel not a sword.
I'll add this sort of thing to my lengthy list of reasons that you don't want to be locked into a walled garden: it subjects you further to the vagaries of international politics.
Shipping something from country A to country B isn't smuggling just because country C has some objection to it.
If the US doesn't want some product to end up somewhere, they should not export it to any country. In case of the iPhone, it isn't even made in the US.
So in effect to comply with US sanctions Apple have engaged in activities that in the long run make it easier for a foreign government to control online behavior of a population. What might be the motive of a government supposedly in favor of protecting freedom and democracy to engage in such measures
If that 'Russian supported' gas attack in Syria wasn't either psyops by the US taking a narrative out of its own playbook, OR a Russian jab at US activities in the same region in the past. People often forget that as 'dumb' as Russia sometimes seems to the West, it has plenty of smart people, especially in its 'foreign relations' departments, and many of them know their history far better than the West does...
"Unlike the iPhone, Android users are free to download apps from sources other than Google's official Android Market."
[censored].
While Trump has spoken about the need for peace w/ Russia, as well as urging peace b/w Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Palis, he's never said that he wants peace w/ 'the Iranian people' (which is about as represented by their regime as Castro or Maduro represent the Cuban or Venezuelan people)
So this will prevent Iranians from having any use for iPhones, and shuts Apple out of that market. Although I wonder - why now? They could have done it all this while to protest Iran's persecution of LGBTQ people. Also, would Iran be able to use rooted Android phones w/o access to Google's Play store?
The other question - has US fully put back the sanctions on Iran? Whatever it's done can't be adequate, since Europe & Russia are no longer a part of the sanctions regime
sanctions against whole countries (particularly non-democratic) hurt way more innocent people than the perpetrators of whatever misdeeds sanctions aim to stop.
target specific bad acting individuals.
Because if history has shown us one thing, it's that unprovoked bombings in countries that pose no realistic threat to us achieves lasting success.
Israel's raids on Iraq's, and a few years ago, Syria's, attempts to build nukes did! Both countries switched their focus to chemical/biological weapons.
And both countries were run by rulers who were committed to wiping Israel off the map. Countries that fought wars against Israel in the past, so not sure what you mean by 'realistic threat'
Of course this is bullying of those nations who have nuclear technology against those who don't... What gives one country more of a right to develop nuclear technologies than any other? It's basically bullying and keeping smaller countries "in their place". Look at existing countries which *do* have nuclear weapons such as pakistan. They're not stupid enough to actually use those weapons because they know the retaliation would immediately wipe them out, but simply having them gives them a much louder voice and stops other countries from pushing them around and making unreasonable demands against them.
Communist countries having nukes, while tragic, had one saving grace: since they were interested in self preservation, they never actually used those, as that would inevitably provoke a counter-attack. Even in North Korea's case, despite the sabre-rattling, they've not gone that far.
Islamic countries having nukes are different. Since they're capable of suicide attacks and indeed have eschatological ambitions, they are more likely to use it than not. Pakistan having nukes is bad enough, and so would be the case w/ Iran. Also, if Iran gets it, you can bet that the Saudis would give Pakistan all the money they want to get a portion of that arsenal. Everybody here who rants about the Saudis and their Islamic extremism will have that to chew on!
The part that the White House opposed was denying the president the authority to lift those sanctions w/o Senate approval. They ought to have challenged it in court on constitutional grounds.
If the president is the commander in chief and can declare wars, an extension of that authority is that he can also end wars and declare peace. Imposing or lifting sanctions are extensions of that, since many countries often choose to diplomatically regard that as a de-facto declaration of war. In fact, in WWII, Japan pretty much resented US sanctions on it due to its occupation of China, which is what caused Pearl Harbor. So regardless of where one stands on Trump's views on Russia, it's dangerous to leave the question of sanctions in the hands of war mongers like McCain, Graham, Rubio et al
Okay, Cuba is a great example of why sanctions are a moral policy. Only the US has (actually now had) sanctions against Cuba. Every other country in the world has normal trade relations w/ Cuba: much of its trade is w/ Europe. Despite all that, the Cuban people continue to live in abject poverty and oppression.
Those who make the argument that sanctions only hurt people, not the government can learn from this example. Even not having sanctions has hurt the Cuban people. At this stage though, it's just a case of waiting for Raul Castro to die out, and hope that the Communist Party implodes thereafter
The reason sanctions worked in the case of South Africa is that they weren't a dictatorship: they did care about what happened at least to their White people, and also, they did care what European countries and the US/Canada/Australia/New Zealand thought about them.
Neither of these applies to Iran, Cuba or North Korea