02 August, 2017
These apps were used by Chinese citizens to skirt China's extremely restrictive Internet firewall which blocks many US websites such as Facebook.
The law, already approved by the Duma, the lower house of parliament, will ban the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and other technologies, known as anonymisers, that allow people to surf the web anonymously.
The New York Times reported recently that Apple had taken steps to remove VPN and anti-censorship apps from its Chinese app store.
The Russian government's decision, like China's, isn't very shocking to Hagemann.
China's crackdown on VPNs has prompted Apple to withdraw "some" VPN applications from the Chinese App Store.
Yokubaitis added, "We view access to the Internet in China as a human rights issue, and I would expect Apple to value human rights over profits".
First China banned VPN apps and now Russian Federation is following suit.
Russian Federation went a step further by banning the use of VPNs, and not just VPN apps.
Apple's chief executive Tim Cook said that they would have preferred to not delete the apps, but just like what they do in other countries, they comply with the law wherever they do business. Because Amazon's cloud services allow customers to lease servers in China, it could be used to give Chinese internet users access to various types of software that would help them get around the Great Firewall. "We the operators also check routinely if any of our users use these softwares [sic] or store illegal content".
Wang stated that the emails sent to customers were sent under guidance from the China's Ministry of Public Security and the country's telecom regulator.
Moves by business giants Apple and Amazon to stop consumers from using censorship-skirting apps in China have renewed questions about the extent US companies are willing to work with authorities to operate in the vast but tightly controlled Chinese market.
Analysts believed that the government has been more insistent on demanding companies to make acknowledgements following the passage of the new cybersecurity law, and ahead of the Communist Party conclave later this year, at which most of China's top leader are expected to be replaced.