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Comment by read_if_gay_ | Hacker News Reader

> And why Telegram in particular?

It ended up as the main way Belarussian protesters organize themselves. TG is a huge target for their government and I would not be surprised if Apple is being pressured by them.

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Apple painted this target on their own back when they decided they’d be the sole distributor of software for the platform.

That’s an extremely good point.

It’s not like Indian/U.S. government didn’t ask Google to take down TikTok from the Play Store.

As long as they operate an app store, they will be a target. Just might not be the only target.

You can sideload tiktok on your android if you're so inclined.

So what? If that was a practical means of installing it for most people, the governments would go after whoever hosts the APK.

That is a way more difficult target to hit. People can follow a 3 step instruction easily enough.

That's kinda the point that having a single controlling entity makes the ecosystem vulnerable to this kind of pressure.

People don’t follow 3 step instructions easily enough. That’s exactly why Apple is so successful.

I wish it weren’t so.

Motivated users (which protesters definitely count as) will absolutely manage to successfully sideload an Android app. Especially seeing as how they are all routinely physically meeting up with many other protesters, so all it takes is running into someone who helps them get set up. Back in my Ingress days I had a similar situation where we were doing a big operation using a command and control coordination sideloaded app. Most of the people were able to figure it out ahead of time, but the last few had others help them download, install, and configure it when we met up for the op. Protests would be exactly the same thing.

> the governments would go after whoever hosts the APK.

Have you thought about what that would mean in practice? Given that the APK could be hosted on multiple (TLS-enabled) foreign sites, a government would need a team of people to be constantly monitoring the web for sites containing the APK, who would then send orders to domestic ISPs demanding that they prevent their customers from accessing those foreign sites.

I believe it is also possible to share apps via Bluetooth.

>Have you thought about what that would mean in practice? Given that the APK could be hosted on multiple (TLS-enabled) foreign sites, a government would need a team of people to be constantly monitoring the web for sites containing the APK, who would then send orders to domestic ISPs demanding that they prevent their customers from accessing those foreign sites.

You mean like the MAFIAA[0] has been doing for decades?

[0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/MAFIAA

My understanding is that the legal and technical process for getting ISPs to block access to a foreign website is one that takes weeks or months. Also, even with this power, I'm not sure how effective the MAFIAA have been at stopping people from downloading copyrighted media:

https://www.mobiles24.co/downloads/s/96965-m1769-speak_softl...

I believe you're absolutely correct.

My point was that any similar attempt would likely be just as unsuccessful.

Belarus is the last European dictatorship considered a pariah state with no international influence and propped up economically by Russia, so I don't think it has much leverage over Apple. The situation would be very different if it was, for example, China.

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