Why is Apple limiting Chinese protesters' use of AirDrop?
www.fastcompany.com

...Public expressions of dissent are far less common in mainland China, where decades of tight monitoring and harsh repression have all but stifled explicit political activism. But in October, just before Xi Jinping secured an unopposed third term as China's leader, some mainland Chinese residents used AirDrop to call for an end of Xi's dictatorship. November's update has made AirDrop protests something unlikely to be seen in China again anytime soon.

Mark Selden, a historian and sociologist who examined Apple's relationship with China in his 2020 book Dying for an iPhone, said that Apple's AirDrop changes "were clearly made by Apple in the context of pressure from the Chinese state." The Cupertino giant is heavily dependent on China as a manufacturing hub and a customer base, so it has "very little choice" but to bend to Chinese officials if it wants to continue operating there, he said.

In 2017, at the behest of Chinese cybersecurity regulators, Apple agreed to transfer control of Chinese users' iCloud data to a Chinese state-owned company. Apple has also removed apps from its Chinese App Store at the request of Chinese authorities, including foreign news apps and apps supporting the Hong Kong protests.

Selden said that Apple usually tries to comply with Chinese requests quietly -- or does so indirectly through Foxconn, its manufacturing partner, which makes most of the world's iPhones at its factories in China. But in this case, "they've been caught with their pants down, so to speak. And they're trying to deal with it by not acknowledging the actual reasons for their actions. But the reasons seem reasonably clear."...

The Fools - Psycho Chicken
www.youtube.com