At least four of the top VPN services have reportedly disappeared from the Apple App Store in Russia as of Thursday, July 4, 2024.
The news comes after two of the affected providers (Red Shield VPN and Le VPN) have shared the notice they received from Apple announcing the removal “at the request of Roskomnadzor”, Russia’s censorship agency, for including “content illegal in Russia”. NordVPN and Proton VPN also appear to have been removed.
Despite civil society groups repeatedly calling on major tech companies to stop helping Russia censor free speech, Apple has finally made a clear commitment to the Kremlin’s censorship orders. VPN services have come under increasing attack across the country recently, with a new law that went into effect in March criminalizing the distribution of information on ways to circumvent internet restrictions.
The role of Big Tech
“Apple must stop helping the Kremlin suppress the country’s civic space,” digital rights organization Access Now wrote in a tweet (see below).
According to experts, Russian VPNs are essential for citizens to continue to exercise their right to free expression and access to information online.
The Internet in Russia is heavily restricted and controlled by the authorities of Roskomnadzor and state-owned companies. For example, Meta is considered an extremist organization and all of its very popular social media platforms are blocked in the country. All of this leads to an ever-growing list of URLs, domain names and IP addresses that are considered illegal.
A VPN, short for virtual private network, is security software that both encrypts internet connections and spoofs users’ IP addresses to allow them access to geo-restricted content. That latter ability is precisely why people in Russia are forced to use VPN apps to bypass online restrictions, something the Kremlin wants to prevent.
Over the years, Russian authorities have temporarily blocked popular VPN providers, sometimes with the help of American tech giants. In 2022, for example, Google was forced to remove more than 36,000 URLs that linked to VPN services, Surfshark reported at the time. Most recently, Google-owned YouTube was accused of helping the Kremlin censor free speech.
VPNs are vital! To ensure that people in Russia can continue to exercise their rights to expression, access to information, and dissent, @Apple must stop helping the Kremlin stifle the country’s civic space. https://t.co/9RVRZwmzNmJuly 4, 2024
Russian cyber lawyer Sarkis Darbinyan told me this about the YouTube case in May: “Companies can no longer say that it is none of their business, that they are following the laws of the country and trying to abide by the law.
“We dare to remind Big Tech that international soft law recommends that private companies should avoid contributing to negative human rights impacts as part of their activities.”
There have been no reports of the Google Play Store being affected at the time of writing, but we can’t guarantee that this won’t change.
When asked about the incident, NordVPN shared the following statement via email: “We have not received any communication from Apple, as we have already removed our apps from Russian versions of app stores in 2023 for moral and legal reasons.”
I also reached out to Proton VPN for comment, but at the time of publishing I am still awaiting a response.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational use. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protect your online security and enhance your online privacy abroad. We do not support or tolerate illegal or malicious use of VPN services. The consumption of paid pirated content is not endorsed or approved by Future Publishing.