From April, the new iPhones and other iOS devices sold in Russia will include an additional configuration step. In addition to questions about language preference and whether Siri is enabled, users will see a screen asking them to install a list of apps from Russian developers. It is not just a regional peculiarity. It’s a concession Apple has made to Moscow’s legal pressure, which could have implications far beyond Russia’s borders.
The law in question dates back to 2019, when Russia ruled that all computers, smartphones, smartphones, etc., sold must be preloaded with a selection of state-approved applications that include browsers, messaging platforms and even antivirus services. Apple has stopped getting it; suggested applications are not preinstalled and users can choose not to download them. But the company’s decision to bend its pre-installation rules could inspire other repressive regimes to make similar, or even more invasive, demands.
“This goes into the context of years and years of regulatory pressure on technology companies,” says Adrian Shahbaz, director of democracy and technology at Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization. The country has made a massive effort to reform its Internet towards mechanisms of control, censorship and mass surveillance. And the government has imposed increasingly stringent regulations on domestic technology companies. “They need to store data on local servers, provide decryption keys to security agencies, and remove content that violates Russian law,” Shahbaz says. , although not all companies do all these things. “And now they are being forced to promote government-approved applications on their platforms.”
The law of pre-installed applications was known as the “law against Apple”, because it essentially dared Apple to leave the Russian market completely instead of changing the rules of the company’s iPhone-controlled ecosystem . Instead, Apple has deleted an exception that others, including Android makers, do not have. Google, which develops the open source Android mobile operating system, does not manufacture most of the hardware on this platform directly and does not control which applications are preinstalled on third-party devices. (Google makes the Pixel phone but does not sell it in Russia).
Mikhail Klimarev, executive director of the Internet Protection Society, a Russian non-governmental organization, says he believes the law of pre-installed applications has a dual function for the Kremlin. It creates an opportunity to promote applications that the country can control and control, while allowing the government to manipulate the technology market. The law will penalize and fine all sellers who sell unsupported computers and smartphones instead of the manufacturers who make them, unless, of course, the company also sells its products directly to Russia, as Apple does.
“The fact is that the responsibility for the infringement is not imposed on the seller, but on the retailer,” says Klimarev. “In this case, the law [will be used] to destroy small sellers. And then the big distributors will raise their prices. Many absurd, technically impractical laws have recently been passed in Russia. “
The status of Russia’s mandatory applications is not the first time Apple has faced invasive legal requirements from an authoritarian government, nor is it the first time the company has accepted those demands. In particular, to continue operating in China, Apple agreed to use a home cloud provider to store iCloud data and encryption keys for its Chinese customers. And Apple is deleting apps from its Chinese iOS App Store when the government demands it. Hosting Russian apps during setup, however, is a new frontier in Apple’s interactions with repressive governments.
“This is part of a broader trend we’ve seen in countries like Iran, Turkey and India,” says Shahbaz of Freedom House. “Authorities are channeling frustration with popular foreign applications, while promoting national equivalents where data and speech are more strictly controlled by the government. It’s a change of bait.”
From both an economic and national security point of view, it is understandable to the point that governments want to promote national software to their own citizens. But in practice, the growing Balkanization of the Internet is eroding Internet freedom around the world and undermining the whole concept of a decentralized global network.