Apple has banned HKmap.live — a Waze-like crowdsourced maps app used by protestors in Hong Kong to track police movements in the city state — merely days after approving it.
The company told Reuters it made the decision after consulting with local authorities and that the “app violated its rules because it was used to ambush police and by criminals who used it to victimize residents in areas with no law enforcement.”
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As it stands, the app’s web version is still accessible on the iPhone.
Earlier this month, Apple had rejected HKmap.live, stating it “it facilitates, enables, and encourages an activity that is not legal,” but eventually reversed its decision last week and approved the app to be listed on the App Store.
As per a tweet by HKmap.live’s anonymous developer, Apple notified them of the app’s removal today stating it “has been used in ways that endanger law enforcement and residents in Hong Kong.”
It’s worth pointing out that apps like Google-owned Waze, which offer similar functionality by allowing users to avoid police checkpoints, continue to be available on the App Store elsewhere — implying that Apple is clearly setting a double standard when it comes to app approvals.
“There is 0 evidence to support CSTCB’s (Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau) accusation that HKmap App has been used to target and ambush police, threaten public safety, and criminals have used it to victimize residents in areas where they know there is no law enforcement,” the developer said in response.
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
Apple’s decision to approve the app had provoked strong condemnation from the Chinese state media, with People’s Daily — a Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece — claiming that “allowing the ‘poisonous’ app to flourish is a betrayal of the Chinese people’s feelings.”
Between a rock and a hard place
The about-turn comes as the iPhone maker removed the Taiwanese flag emoji — blocked in mainland China since 2017 — from iPhones sold in Hong Kong and Macau with the iOS 13.1.1 update released last month, highlighting the difficult balance the company must strike in supporting free speech while bowing down to pressures from Beijing.
HKmap.live is not the only app to get removed from the App Store. News publication Quartz had its mobile app pulled yesterday for serving “content that is illegal in China,” referencing its ongoing coverage of the pro-democracy protests raging in Hong Kong.
That’s not all. Apple has acquiesced to a number of other demands over the years, including removing VPN apps from the Chinese App Store — thereby restricting users from accessing overseas sites — and censoring Hong Kong singers from the Chinese version of Apple Music.
It’s a known fact that Apple — and other companies like ByteDance TikTok — have to tread a fine line in China. These decisions outline the tricky trade-offs the tech giant has to make in order to continue operating in the market, even if that means losing its ethical and moral high ground.
By repeatedly running antithetical to its own global privacy and security mantra, Apple has only made it painfully obvious that it has one set of rules for China and another outside it.
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