Apple in eye of China-Hong Kong storm

Apple has removed an app that allowed Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters to organise and track police movements, and has pulled a reputable news app that has written extensively on the protests from its China app store—moves that have placed it in the centre of a complex political debate.

The electronics giant initially approved the HKmap.live app—which crowdsources real-time locations of traffic obstructions, police and protesters in the territory—but on Wednesday (9 October) it succumbed to pressure from Chinese state media and withdrew it from its digital store.

Earlier in the week, the influential People’s Daily, a newspaper owned by the Communist Party of China, said in a blog post that Apple was aiding “rioters” in Hong Kong by approving the app, and that it had “betrayed the feelings of the Chinese people”.

The business’ chief executive Tim Cook has defended the decision, saying in an email to employees on Thursday (10 October) that the company had received “credible information” from the authorities and people in Hong Kong “that the app was being used maliciously to target individual officers for violence and to victimize individuals and property where no police are present.” As a result, he said, the app violated Apple rules and local laws.

Now the company is facing a different set of criticisms: from the app’s creators, the market’s citizens and its global supporters.

1. We disagree @Apple and @hkpoliceforce 's claim that HKmap App endanger law enforcement and residents in Hong Kong.#HKmap #HKmaplive #HK #Censorship

— HKmap.live 全港抗爭即時地圖 (@hkmaplive) October 10, 2019

The app’s developers said on Twitter that Apple’s decision to pull the app was “clearly a political decision to suppress freedom and human rights in #HongKong”. They went on to claim there is “zero evidence” to support the accusation that app has been used to target and ambush police and threaten public safety, and questioned how it violated Apple’s rules while other similar apps, such as crowdsourced traffic app Waze, were still permitted on the app store.

Charles Mok, a member of Hong Kong’s legislative council, posted a letter he had written to Cook on Twitter, in which he writes he was “deeply disappointed with Apple’s decision to ban the app, and would like to contest the claims made by Hong Kong police force.”

Today I wrote to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, to tell him his company’s decision to remove HKmap live app from Appstore will cause problems for normal Hong Kong’s citizens trying to avoid police presence while they are under constant fear ofpolice brutality. Values over profits, pls! pic.twitter.com/guaBfV8Pnf

— Charles Mok 莫乃光 (@charlesmok) October 10, 2019

“HKmap.live helps HK residents, journalists, tourists, etc … avoid being hurt by teargas, rubber bullets, baton, beanbag round and water cannon that the Hong Kong police claims to be ‘minimum force’, and get real-time updates of public transport,” Mok wrote.

Apple is also being criticised for removing news organisation Quartz’ app from its store in China, reasoning that “it includes content that is illegal in China,” according to Quartz, which received the notice from Apple last month (30 September). The US news site has been extensively covering the Hong Kong protests.

The chief executive of Quartz, Zach Seward, said in response: “We abhor this kind of government censorship of the internet.” 

Elsewhere, Google also removed an app from its app store this week that was associated with the ongoing Hong Kong protests. The app in question was a pro-Hong Kong protester game called The Revolution of Our Times. It was pulled from the Play Store this week for violating a policy that bans “capitalizing on sensitive events such as attempting to make money from serious ongoing conflicts or tragedies through a game”, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Apple and Google are among several brands that have become swept up in the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement. See our coverage this week of Tiffany & Co, Vans and many more.