Apple Ordered to Pull WhatsApp/Threads from China App Store | Hacker News Reader

Apple Ordered to Pull WhatsApp/Threads from China App Store

nytimes.com

49 pointsmizzao24 comments

> “We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree,” an Apple spokesman said.

That sure didn't happen in the EU, did it?

Is Apple just more scared of China?

The law of EU is threatening the whole business model of Apple, while the order of China relates to a single product only, and not even a product of Apple itself. So the cases are not comparable at all. Besides, the Chinese order is a clear cut while the law of EU open many ways to interpret.

> the law of EU open many ways to interpret.

This is only a problem if you’re intentionally trying to do the bare minimum or have a scummy business model that you’re trying to protect.

You can always take the nicest, pro-user (or pro-competition, pro-privacy, etc) approach to preempt any variance in interpretation. Nobody’s been fined for being too compliant after all.

And what would the society would get (net total) if everybody is too compliant with the law or government’s orders? Where would we go? I don’t think it would be a nice place.

PS: not particularly related to the Apple’s case, though.

Apple has generally been consistent - it does what generates the most returns to its shareholders.

If you're referring to the DMA, "remove these two apps from your store" is so much simpler (not to mention clearer) than that cluster, it's pointless to even compare the two situations.

China also has no qualms about deleting people if they dare to defy, unlike Europe.

As it turns out, potential death is a great motivator.

DMA compliance is only hard because it gets in the way of Apple’s scummy business model.

It does not have to be hard. Most products begin as DMA compliant, it takes extra effort to make them not compliant. Apple can stop that extra effort virtually overnight.

Apple still removes apps for Russia when it asks.

As long as Apple gets their cut, they don't care. Their icloud servers are even controlled by the government in China, pulling out a few apps is nothing compared to that. And they are still operating in Russia like nothing happened.

They really don't like the EU because it threatens their cut and risks a domino effect globally where other countries could ask the same. China and Russia do not do that.

> Is Apple just more scared of China?

They probably are. They have roughly the same sized economies in nominal GDP, China is a lot bigger in PP terms, and China's government has a far greater powers and a far more compliant legal system to enforce its will.

Practically it’s a no op. To use WhatsApp or Threads I need an app to bypass the GFW, which is not available on Chinese App Store. So I have an American Apple ID to download a proxying app. Then there is no point for me to download those two apps from the Chinese App Store even back when they still existed.

What I’m really afraid of is that someday iPhones within China won’t be able to login to Apple Store in another region.

Instagram and TikTok don’t work in China without a VPN. I’d be surprised if other Meta apps worked either. Most apps in China require a Chinese phone number to fully work too.

It's been blocked since 2017 as well.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/17/china-lobbying-tikt...

> In a statement, embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said that the “Chinese Embassy in the US tries to tell the truth about the TikTok issue to people from all walks of life in the US.”

> “This is not about lobbying for a single company,” the spokesperson added, “but about whether all Chinese companies can be treated fairly.”

> In the wake of the House bill’s passage, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the legislation “puts the US on the wrong side of the principles of fair competition and international trade rules.”

Hypocrites. Pass the TikTok bill.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com