Russia forces Apple to remove dozens of VPN apps from App Store

[APT-ZERO]

Apple has removed 25 virtual private network (VPN) apps from the Russian App Store at the request of Roskomnadzor, Russia's telecommunications watchdog.

Roskomnadzor confirmed to Interfax that the order targets multiple apps (including NordVPN, Proton VPN, Red Shield VPN, Planet VPN, Hidemy.Name VPN, Le VPN, and PIA VPN) used to gain access to content tagged as illegal in Russia.

Source : https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/russia-forces-apple-to-remove-dozens-of-vpn-apps-from-app-store/ https://x.com/RedShieldVPN_ru/status/1808766482580377616

[APT-ZERO]

Why Russia and China didn't asked Apple to remove V2Ray clients from Russian and Chinese App Store and their people's devices

[fortuna]

What is the list of 25 VPNs? That claim keep being repeated, without an actual source. It would help to have some confirmation. I only saw confirmation from Red Shield VPN and LeVPN.

[Lanius-collaris]

@fortuna I saw 15 applications in the above articles.

NordVPN
Proton VPN
Red Shield VPN
Planet VPN
Hidemy.Name VPN
Le VPN
PIA VPN
HideMyAss!
Hola VPN
OpenVPN
VyprVPN
ExpressVPN
TorGuard
IPVanish
VPN Unlimited

Try https://applecensorship.com/app-store-monitor/test/vpn ?

HTTP request method	URL	HTTP response status code
GET	https://apps.apple.com/us/app/proton-vpn-fast-secure/id1437005085	200
GET	https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/proton-vpn-fast-secure/id1437005085	200
GET	https://apps.apple.com/ru/app/proton-vpn-fast-secure/id1437005085	404
GET	https://apps.apple.com/cn/app/proton-vpn-fast-secure/id1437005085	404

[gusgustavo]

Maybe the trick used by Chinese users to bypass App Store restrictions -- changing their Apple ID to a different country to download blocked apps -- could also work in this case? Let me know!

[mmmray]

@gusgustavo Yes, that works and is used.

It was also claimed that v2box is censored in russia, but it doesn't show up like this on applecensorship.com.