Apple “Aids Censorship” by Removing Close to 100 VPNs from Russian iOS App Store

• Apple is accused of aiding Russia in ever-growing censorship by voluntarily removing VPN apps from the App Store.
• During the last couple of months, the US company has removed close to 100 VPNs without public acknowledgment.
• VPNs such as ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Proton VPN, and NordVPN are among the affected apps.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, the country’s authorities have focused on controlling the flow of information. Even before the conflict started, Russia began obstructing VPNs by forcing them to comply with stringent data logging laws. This year, we saw a considerable spike in VPN usage across the country and additional censorship attempts.

In July, Russia’s Roskomnadzor said that Apple had removed 25 VPN apps and even praised the US company for striving to comply with Russian legislation. However, the GreatFire Project now unveils that Apple has removed close to 100 VPNs during the last couple of months, even without being forced by Russia’s authorities.

More precisely, 98 VPN apps have been removed, 60 of them in the last three months. That includes big-name VPN providers like ExpressVPN, CyberGhost VPN, Proton VPN, and NordVPN, which are otherwise considered the best VPNs for Russia overall. As Benjamin Ismael, director of the App Censorship Project at GreatFire, notes, the removals were concentrated around specific dates.

In other words, Ismael believes that Russia’s Roskomnadzor didn’t force Apple to implement such drastic censorship measures. Also, there are no signs of voluntary withdrawals by VPN developers, which points to the company’s willingness to aid Russia in censoring the Internet.

In the meantime, Russia has expanded its aggression towards digital tools that can bypass geo-blocks and go beyond firewalls. Recently, it has blocked scientific and technical information regarding VPNs. Furthermore, VPN providers are not allowed to advertise their services as solutions for unblocking websites.

It’s also worth noting that Apple has paused certain services in Russia, such as Apple Pay. However, it still operates many services in the country, including Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple One subscriptions, and more. As such, the company is most likely trying to find a balance to stay on the good side of Russia’s legislators.