Apple has complied with the Chinese government’s request to remove several popular communication apps from its app store, including WhatsApp, Threads, Signal, and Telegram, due to national security concerns. This action was taken following a directive from the Cyberspace Administration of China. These apps have been crucial for political dissidents globally, especially in China where political expression is heavily regulated. Despite previous reliance on VPNs to access these platforms, they are now unavailable for download in China through the official app store. This move by Apple comes amidst increasing tensions between the U.S. and China in the realm of consumer technology, with discussions in the U.S. Senate about the future of TikTok, a popular social media app owned by a Chinese parent company

  • rottingleaf@lemmy.zipEnglish
    43·
    3 months ago

    So Telegram being banned makes you less suspicious of that?

    How can one be so gullible.

    EDIT: Also a nation-state can get a backdoor to your device or a trojan, in case you are using something secure from them.

    • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
      31·
      3 months ago

      In this context signal getting banned gives more credibility to signal, but it should be noted signal wasn’t banned in India even though briar was.

      I’m not sure what your threat model is, I don’t see how I’m being gullible. Looking at who bans what is a signal that we should incorporate into our threat modeling

            • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
              1·
              3 months ago

              You can, just block Tor; Block all ISPs from serving install files for briar. Get it removed from the app stores.

              • EngineerGaming@feddit.nlEnglish
                11·
                3 months ago

                “Just block Tor” lol. Even China could not do it fully, good luck. There was even a new type of bridge released recently so chances are slimmer.

                • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
                  2·
                  3 months ago

                  It’s not about perfection, just keeping friction high enough that it doesn’t become a threat.

                  As a thought experiment how many Tor users are in north korea?

                  • EngineerGaming@feddit.nlEnglish
                    21·
                    3 months ago

                    NK has not only a software “firewall”, but control over hardware and more physical control as well. So barely an example and def not applicable to a big country.

                    And also - wonder how high Tor usage friction is in China? Where I live, just obfs4 works and they’re fairly easy to get. Doesn’t China just need a different type of bridges?

      • rottingleaf@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        You should consider that when a nation-state chooses which applications to ban, they know that somebody will use the fact for threat modelling. They are giving out that information consciously while making that decision.