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Since Russia’s full-scale assault on Ukraine, Apple has significantly scaled back its operations in the country. It has since suspended all product sales and limited certain services, such as Apple Pay. Despite this, Apple continues to operate a full-fledged App Store in Russia. However, it’s now facing worthy criticism for complying with Russian government requests to remove VPN apps to adhere to local regulations–censorship.
A new report published by GreatFire, using data from AppleCensorship, a platform that monitors app availability in Apple’s App Stores, claims that close to 60 VPN apps were removed by Apple during the summer of 2024, totaling 98 since the war began. This includes the likes of ExpressVPN and NordVPN, as well as Norton Secure, Proton, and Bitdefender’s offerings.
These removals far exceed the 25 VPN apps that Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, reported as banned, raising concerns about Apple’s transparency and its role in enabling censorship in the country.
“Apple’s silent removal of close to 60 VPN apps from the Russia App Store is not just alarming—it’s a direct threat to digital freedom and privacy,” said Benjamin Ismail, Director of the App Censorship Project at GreatFire.
“By unilaterally restricting access to these essential tools without transparency or due process, Apple is complicit in enabling government censorship. We demand that Apple uphold its commitment to human rights and provide a clear explanation for these actions.”
Apple likely removed these VPN apps to comply with Russia’s stringent internet laws, which require tech companies to cooperate with government censorship efforts. By limiting access to VPNs, the Russian government can more effectively control the flow of information and monitor its citizens.
Apple is facing a dilemma: comply with authoritarian demands or start reducing features, diminishing user experience, and, of course, cutting into profits. It’s not exactly clear how big the Russian market is for Apple nowadays, but it is still operating many services including Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Podcasts, Apple Fitness+, Apple Books, Shazam, iTunes, and Apple One subscriptions. Noncompliance could risk penalties or even suspension of services.
In the coming weeks, I’ll be traveling to Kyiv, Ukraine, for Objective-See’s Objective for the We 2.0 Apple security event hosted by our friends at MacPaw. I’m excited for the opportunity to report from the ground for 9to5Mac. Stay tuned for that!
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