Apple CEO Says They Have to Follow China's Rules on VPN Use; Hopes for Lighter Measures
Apple CEO Tim Cook says they have to follow China's laws against the use of applications for virtual private networks but hopes that the country would soon impose lighter policies on the issue.
During the recent earnings call of the Cupertino, California, technology giant, Cook went into detail on what led them to make the decision to pull out major VPN apps from the China App Store.
Cook started by saying that the Chinese government's stricter measures against VPN use started in 2015 and added (via Tech Crunch): "Essentially, as a requirement for someone to operate a VPN they have to have a license from the government there."
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The move to tighten policies against VPN use within the Chinese territories were renewed this year, according to Cook. The Apple CEO then stated: "We would obviously rather not remove the apps, but like we do in other countries we follow the law wherever we do business."
While Cook maintained that it was in the company's principles to engage with governments, it seemed like Apple saw this particular situation with China as a battle that cannot be won just yet. "We're hopeful that over time the restrictions we're seeing are loosened," Cook added.
A few days ago, several major VPN app developers cried foul on Apple's sudden move to pull their applications from the China App Store.
Star VPN developer confirmed they received a notification email shortly before their app was removed. They later on criticized Apple's decision.
The developers said through Twitter that Apple's move was a "dangerous precedent" and what China did could be copied by other countries where the government has power to control what the people can or cannot access on the internet.
Golden Frog, the developer of VyprVPN, also scrutinized Apple's move and said it was not in line with a previous statement made by their CEO. In an earlier interview, Cook referred to internet accessibility as a "human right."
Golden Frog president Sunday Yokubaitis said in a blog that they hope Apple "would choose human rights over profits."
