Tim Cook—Approved removal of VPN apps and protest tools from China App Store at Beijing's request
Under Tim Cook's leadership, Apple removed VPN apps, the HKmap.live Hong Kong protest app (October 2019), and other politically sensitive apps from China's App Store at the request of Chinese authorities. Employees alleged Cook ultimately approved plans to aggressively censor apps and store customer data on Chinese government-managed servers in Guiyang and Inner Mongolia.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authoritarian Compliance | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| User Privacy | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.483 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.57)× agency (reactive ×0.75)
Evidence (1 signal)
Apple removed HKmap.live protest app from China App Store after People's Daily criticism
In October 2019, Apple removed the HKmap.live app from its App Store in China after China's state-owned People's Daily newspaper criticized Apple for enabling Hong Kong protesters. The app was used by protesters to track police movements. Apple also removed numerous VPN apps that helped Chinese users circumvent the Great Firewall.