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Apple Pulls 25,000 Apps From China Amid a Barrage of State-Media Criticism (wsj.com)
Apple has pulled more than 25,000 illegal apps from its App Store in China after coming under fire from state media for not doing enough to filter out banned material. From a report: "Gambling apps are illegal and not allowed on the App Store in China," Apple said in a statement Monday. "We have already removed many apps and developers for trying to distribute illegal gambling apps on our App Store, and we are vigilant in our efforts to find these and stop them from being on the App Store." The removals were reported earlier by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday, which said 25,000 apps were pulled. Apple didn't confirm that number. It offers more than 1.8 million apps in China, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Removing 25,000 apps would amount to about 1.4% of that total.
I wish my country would do more to stop multinationals shitting all over our people and their rights.
Gambling can be harmful and from what I see of the local casinos, it seems to particularly affect Asians. Well done to the Chinese government for protecting their people.
Apple, specifically Cook, Google, and other tech companies will protest to the world the tiniest slight of possible discrimination, perceived or real, with the force of their full companies & reach, but they all will immediately drop to their knees and suck China's red cock while ignoring every major and documented human violation and discrimination over there. Along with the Middle East as well.
"Hey, we have to have a major protest if a man can't go into the female bathroom with little girls, but we don't give a fuck about gays being killed with govt support or actual female discrimination."
Unfortunately Profit/Ethics is still much larger than 1.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
So Apple is supposed to ban "prohibited content including pornography, gambling and counterfeit goods." That sounds ok, but I wonder what the other prohibited content is. Does it include private free speech, without the Chinese government able to listen in?
The same WSJ article says,
Apple depends on China for about one-fifth of its revenue. When sales in the market fell 26% in the three months ended in March 2016, Apple’s stock tumbled to a low of $90.34 within months.
I wonder if Xi is trying to scare Tim Cook, hoping Cook will pressure the US government into backing down on tariffs against China.
Tim Cook and pals still think they have a future and they need their investors to believe it and keep investing, but the truth is that they killed the company years ago and it's just taking time for the various bits of the corpse to stop wiggling.
They put very high profit margins over everything and thus moved all production to China for the cheap labor and lack of environmental controls. They pretended they simply could not be profitable employing middle class Americans, even though [a] Apple originally rose to greatness while employing Americans in America and [b] far smaller and less-wealthy companies were doing fine and were profitable making stuff in America with Americans.
In order to manufacture in China, Apple management made the same short-sighted moron moves many other American businesses made: they "partnered" with Chinese "businesses" (arms of the Chinese govt/party/military) and they had to teach the Chinese everything important about the product, its tech, and manufacturing it. After that point, it's only a matter of time before a Chinese entity replaces Apple. It's already impossible to buy a cell phone made in America, where cell phones were invented. No amount of Apple software or services can stop the inevitable end and the only thing uncertain is the date the company is de-listed at the stock exchange. This move is part of the proof that China is already in the driver's seat re Apple.
Truth isn't truth.
Haven't you heard?
Their primary concern is increasing profits, which happens by increasing the revenue (getting as close to a monopolist as possible) and lowering the costs (a.k.a. optimizing the workforce and lowering the tax burden).
In established oligarchies, where "the law" is drafted between lobbyists and legislators over expensive lunches paid by the former, Apple is in compliance because they write the laws.
In places like China, where the ruling elite is more aligned to an ideology, they listen and obey.
The job of Apple isn't to ask for more "democracy" in China. That's the job of the US government.
China is a severely repressed communist country. How these tech companies never understood this is beyond me? The US and Europe is a far cry from the controlling nature of a socialist or communist country. I would have to say Apple is losing out in places like China, India and elsewhere because Apple is not the Golden child like it is in the US and EU.
So.... do we see the problem with centrally controlled app stores that don't allow easily adding other sources yet?
but apparently not via Apple Store apps.
"Governments have been dominated by the corporate entities and citizens have ceased to matter in public policy" true in
walled garden of green indirectly controlled by the communist government! could you imagine hitler and stalin working with apple? beautiful cooperation, would make things truly great! i am sure the communists will try to make it great too!
Locking people in with no way of installing unapproved apps makes Apple even more evil than Google!
"Touch the devil and you can't let go."