Apple Removes Russian VK Apps From App Store in Response to UK Sanctions

[Morgenland]

No it isn't. I think you're misinterpreting 'story' as something that can't be true. My point is that whilst we may be making opinions based on a story that more accurately reflects the reality than the story being promoted by Putin & Co, it is also true that 'our' story has also been manipulated with a degree of propaganda. I remember telling a Russian colleague how the UK media was reporting on life in Moscow under the sanctions - he just laughed.

I made no claim of equivalence.

I have a Russian-speaking colleague here in Europe who just cries about Putler's madness. The colleague knows the history and is always concerned about the details. Stories always serve to simplify. To recognize dangers, sick leaders, or repetitions in historical mechanisms, I think you just have to have a certain sensitivity and maturity. Thank you for your clarification.

 

[alexandr]

It was a bad influence that instilled bad habits that I have been unable to break since.

Same here. Funny, but I actually did a search for the best Tetris app, not super happy with any of them. Any suggestions?

 

[avz]

that's not the point, you know
p doesn't care about nazis, he wants something else, don't play child

LOL. If you don't understand that USA is playing a game "There can be only one" then the child joke is all on you. Those who play for money will always lose to those who play for power.

I find it funny when people make fun about Biden's age without even realizing that regardless his age his power game is pretty tight and is right on the money.

 

[ninethirty]

Nobody found it strange that the FBI approached Facebook to hide or claim things about a certain somebodies laptop was “fake news”. 🤔

A few things to note about this scenario, because the way you're presenting it is also misinformation.

1. The FBI is accountable to, and reports to the AG. Both the head of the FBI, and the AG were appointed by Trump.
2. The situation you are describing occurred during the Trump administrations years.
3. The FBI did not approach Facebook and tell them to hide or claim anything about Hunter Biden's laptop. They warned Facebook about misinformation campaigns that would be similar to 2016. Facebook made the decision to restrict sharing of the story, probably because it seemed shady as all hell.
4. Hunter Biden wasn't running for President.
5. Hunter Biden may be an idiot, but his father is not. Joe Biden has done nothing wrong and even though Facebook has expressed regret for the action they took, voters weren't prevented from knowing anything about Joe Biden that they should have known prior to the election. At least not anymore than I feel duped because we didn't get official stories about Trump's son being a cokehead.

 

[avz]

More propaganda. Ukraine rejected the naming of Bandera as a national hero, and didn't ban people from speaking Russian.

The monument is still there and I never heard Zelensky publicly denouncing Stepan Bandera. The Russian language was officially banned in Ukraine well before the military operation.

I know even USA would not be able to get away with this. But the difference is that contrary to the Ukraine USA actually has statemanship competencies and would never ever ban say Spanish language or any other language for that matter.

 

[BaldiMac]

The monument is still there and I never heard Zelensky publicly denouncing Stepan Bandera.

A monument does not speak for an entire country. Nor does it justify invasion.

The Russian language was officially banned in Ukraine well before the military operation.

I know even USA would not be able to get away with this. But the difference is that contrary to the Ukraine USA actually has statemanship competencies and would never ever ban say Spanish language or any other language for that matter.

No, it wasn't.

No, the Russian language was not banned from Ukraine

Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently doubled down on an inaccurate statement he’s made before: that Ukraine ba

www.politifact.com

 

[szw-mapple fan]

So the sanction is from the UK? Can Apple simply block the app on the UK app store? I mean if it's from the US government, then maybe it makes more sense. Does this mean the UK government can dictate what Apple have in the app store for other countries? Maybe someone can provide more details. Genuinely curious.

The idea is that Apple as a whole would be sanctioned in the UK if VK does business with any part of Apple. A more understandable example would be, let’s say, BP still getting sanctioned even if they were trading Gazprom oil from a subsidiary in India instead of the UK.

If it was a very minor market doing this Apple could just stop doing business in that country and take the sanctions, but the UK is a profitable enough market for Apple that they are incentivized to avoid losing it. Any government can technically do something similar and have Apple follow their rules globally as long as Apple wants to stay in their market badly enough.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

The propaganda is ripe on both sides concerning this issue. I guess the idea of a “free market” is an illusion. Google, Meta (Facebook), Instagram, TikTok, WeChat, etc are all offenders of privacy which according to Apple is a Human Right (I agree). So why is Apple playing this sham game of taking sides.

If only Apple adopted USB-C on iPhone with such gusto.

Apple isn’t really taking sides here, unless the alternative you are suggesting is Apple stop doing business in the UK. If they want to keep selling in the UK they have to follow UK laws. If the UK came out and said they are going to sanction any electronics company that does not use USB-C on all their devices, Apple would switch to USB-C overnight (which is pretty much what’s happening with the EU rules on USB-C).

 

[avz]

A monument does not speak for an entire country. Nor does it justify invasion.


No, it wasn't.

No, the Russian language was not banned from Ukraine

Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently doubled down on an inaccurate statement he’s made before: that Ukraine ba

www.politifact.com

So what was the justification for killing the Russian speaking people in the Donbass region for the last 8 years? Or burning people alive in Odessa? Even written guarantees from the EU leaders could not stop this. But this is probably will only tell you more about the "status" of the EU leaders and the "value" of their signatures.

Even during the Soviet Union times there were Ukrainians who "joke" about how they will be killing Russians. Then Soviet leader Khrushchev(who was Ukrainian) did an amnesty of 150,000 Ukrainians who fought on a Hitlers's side and brought them back home from Canada. Obviously they did not repent or changed their ways. I guess that saying "Be careful what you wish for" is very accurate to say the least. There is a lot of history, Russia is dealing with a 300 year old issue there.

 

[BaldiMac]

So what was the justification for killing the Russian speaking people in the Donbass region for the last 8 years? Or burning people alive in Odessa? Even written guarantees from the EU leaders could not stop this. But this is probably will only tell you more about the "status" of the EU leaders and the "value" of their signatures.

Even during the Soviet Union times there were Ukrainians who "joke" about how they will be killing Russians. Then Soviet leader Khrushchev(who was Ukrainian) did an amnesty of 150,000 Ukrainians who fought on a Hitlers's side and brought them back home from Canada. Obviously they did not repent or changed their ways. I guess that saying "Be careful what you wish for" is very accurate to say the least. There is a lot of history, Russia is dealing with a 300 year old issue there.

I've already fact checked two pieces of Russian propaganda that you've posted. Rather than acknowledging that you were wrong, you're just shifting the goalposts. Perhaps you should find more credible sources of information.

Donbass: Did Ukraine Kill 14,000 Pro-Russians and Civilians?

The answer is no. 14,000 is the number of the total victims of the war in Donbass, killed by both parties between 2014 and 2021. 10,900 of them were soldiers.

bitterwinter.org

 

[hans1972]

Because you don’t agree with it ok then, it’s just a social media platform, I’m sure you wanna cancel every platform that doesn’t have your views

I certainly would.

It would be a blood bath.

 

[avz]

I've already fact checked two pieces of Russian propaganda that you've posted. Rather than acknowledging that you were wrong, you're just shifting the goalposts. Perhaps you should find more credible sources of information.

Donbass: Did Ukraine Kill 14,000 Pro-Russians and Civilians?

The answer is no. 14,000 is the number of the total victims of the war in Donbass, killed by both parties between 2014 and 2021. 10,900 of them were soldiers.

bitterwinter.org

I would consider your "sources" to be rather questionable and biased to say the least. Russian is not a state language in Ukraine as you can't have your documents in Russian, schools and so on. Being able to speak Russian quietly in the kitchen of your own home means nothing and only proves my point.

 

[BaldiMac]

I would consider your "sources" to be rather questionable and biased to say the least. Russian is not a state language in Ukraine as you can't have your documents in Russian, schools and so on. Being able to speak Russian quietly in the kitchen of your own home means nothing and only proves my point.

You said the "Russian language was officially banned in Ukraine" and that Ukraine was "banning people from speaking their mother-tongue Russian language." You were clearly wrong.

My source was not "questionable and biased". It clearly spelled out that Ukranian was made the official state language. The law doesn't prevent people in Ukraine from speaking Russian loudly outside of the home.

 

[jimbobb24]

Targeting specific oligarchs? Weird. Hope it helps the people of Russia and the Ukraine.

 

[robd003]

I really wish side-loading was possible.

Who really owns the phone if you can't do what you want with it?

 

[avz]

You said the "Russian language was officially banned in Ukraine" and that Ukraine was "banning people from speaking their mother-tongue Russian language." You were clearly wrong.

My source was not "questionable and biased". It clearly spelled out that Ukranian was made the official state language. The law doesn't prevent people in Ukraine from speaking Russian loudly outside of the home.

This is all merely a semantics as changing the official status of the Russian language essentially means banning it. There is a reason why Zelensky said that if you are a Ukrainian citizen but you "feel like you are a Russian" get out of Ukraine. Period. You can't possibly sugarcoat it.

With this attitude NO COUNTRY in the world would be able to survive. There is a reason why statesmanship competencies are so important especially if you are aspiring to be a great country or even an empire. There is also a reason why US did not butcher or banned an English language after declaring its independence from Britain. And it is very shallow to think that it is only for convenience.

More importantly if you are questioning 1945 world order and Russia's rights as a winner of the WWII, I would say prepare for the worst. I hope your "sources" will be very helpful in helping you understand this.

 

[BaldiMac]

This is all merely a semantics as changing the official status of the Russian language essentially means banning it.

That's clearly not true.

With this attitude NO COUNTRY in the world would be able to survive. There is a reason why statesmanship competencies are so important especially if you are aspiring to be a great country or even an empire. There is also a reason why US did not butcher or banned an English language after declaring its independence from Britain. And it is very shallow to think that it is only for convenience.

What are you talking about? Almost all countries have an official language.

More importantly if you are questioning 1945 world order and Russia's rights as a winner of the WWII, I would say prepare for the worst. I hope your "sources" will be very helpful in helping you understand this.

I have no idea what that means. It surely doesn't justify you posting Russian propaganda.

 

[DoFoT9]

I really wish side-loading was possible.

Who really owns the phone if you can't do what you want with it?

It’s not perfect, but perhaps https://altstore.io/ can help those that want to try? I was using it for UTM, so not sure if it works for other apps. I agree with your note though, it’s our device - let us do what we want with it.

 

[ninethirty]

This is all merely a semantics as changing the official status of the Russian language essentially means banning it. There is a reason why Zelensky said that if you are a Ukrainian citizen but you "feel like you are a Russian" get out of Ukraine. Period. You can't possibly sugarcoat it.

With this attitude NO COUNTRY in the world would be able to survive. There is a reason why statesmanship competencies are so important especially if you are aspiring to be a great country or even an empire. There is also a reason why US did not butcher or banned an English language after declaring its independence from Britain. And it is very shallow to think that it is only for convenience.

More importantly if you are questioning 1945 world order and Russia's rights as a winner of the WWII, I would say prepare for the worst. I hope your "sources" will be very helpful in helping you understand this.

I have to say, it's really amusing to watch a person who's clearly lost the argument continue to double down and dig deeper the way you are.

Take the L, dude.

 

[sirozha]

The monument is still there and I never heard Zelensky publicly denouncing Stepan Bandera. The Russian language was officially banned in Ukraine well before the military operation.

I know even USA would not be able to get away with this. But the difference is that contrary to the Ukraine USA actually has statemanship competencies and would never ever ban say Spanish language or any other language for that matter.

The Russian language was never banned in Ukraine. Russian was removed from the school curriculum, but about 40% of Ukrainians continued to speak Russian both at home and outside home, including in public places like work, army, shops, markets, etc. Their children also spoke Russian at home, but spoke Ukrainian in school. Moreover, Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians, of whom a very high percentage are absolutely fluent (at the native level) in Russian, switch to Russian without any issues to accommodate the people who speak Russian to them. At least, that's how it was before Putin started this war with Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Now even Russian-speaking Ukrainians are switching to Ukrainian at home (if they can) or learning Ukrainian so that not to speak the language of the Russian occupiers. This is what's Putler's war has done to the status of the Russian language in Ukraine. Once Ukraine wins this war, the Russian language will be hated in Ukraine even by the native speakers of Russian, just like I (a native speaker of Russian) now hate this language and refuse to speak it.

How many public schools teach Ukrainian in Russia as a foreign language or teach other subjects in Ukrainian? The answer is, "Exactly Zero". There are dozens of millions of ethnic Ukrainians who live in Russia. Zelensky always said that he would open public schools teaching in Russian if Russia opened public schools teaching in Ukrainian - one for one. He has the same parity conditions for other minority languages, such as Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, etc. Hungarians are also screaming about Zelensky having removed Hungrarian from the school curriculum in the areas of Ukraine that abut Hungary. They also refuse to open Ukrainian schools in Hungary.

Those who claim Russian was banned in Ukraine do not understand the subject at hand and are swallowing Putin's propaganda. Even today some Ukrainian army units speak exclusively Russian both in battle and at rest because the majority of soldiers in these units are native speakers of Russian. No one forbids anyone in Ukraine to speak any language, be it Mandarin, Spanish, English, French, Hungarian, Romanian, or Russian.

Stepan Bandera is a hero of the Ukrainian resistance to the Nazis and to the communists. He spent most of WWII in a Nazi concentration camp imprisoned by the Nazis for his resistance. The fact that commies and Russian nationalists hate him doesn't make him a bad guy, especially for the Ukrainians.

Additionally, Bandera is not implicated in the atrocities against the Jews in Ukraine as the Russians claim. OUN - Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists - had several factions. One faction was under the command of Bandera until he was arrested by the Nazis. Members of other factions of OUN - not under Bandera's command - did commit atrocities against the Jews especially in Belarus, but Bandera's faction never did. Moreover, the Bandera's faction of OUN had many Jewish members in it.

There is nothing for Zelensky (a Jew) to apologize to Putler (a fascist) for, and there is nothing that should compel Zelensky to denounce Stepan Bandera even if he may not particularly like him personally. Stepan Bandera is a national hero for many Christian Ukrainians, and now with the atrocities that the Russians have been committing in Ukraine, Stepan Bandera is a national symbol for a much higher percentage of Ukrainians than before Putler's war. The result of this war by the fascist Russia against Ukraine will be that Stepan Bandera will show up on the Ukrainian money, and Russian will die out in Ukraine completely because every patriotic Ukrainian - be he Ukrainian or Russian speaking - will refuse to speak the language of the Russian enemy.

 

[mikethemartian]

What happened to free speech? Many people on the app don’t agree with putin, the people suffering are innocent Russians.

Britain and the rest of NATO are in the middle of a proxy war with Russia. This is to cut off income to Putin’s allies and put pressure on Putin.

 

[DoFoT9]

Britain and the rest of NATO are in the middle of a proxy war with Russia. This is to cut off income to Putin’s allies and put pressure on Putin.

I appreciate these decisions (such as apps being used for propaganda) are by proxy and are perhaps a repercussion of the war, however, it’s apps like these that enable me to keep in touch with family, and also, to see content that I otherwise would not see on western (social) media. It would be fairly detrimental, at least to me and my family, if all ties were cut (literally, if the Internet was severed at the border, which has been talked about for years so perhaps not a relevant example). Shame.

 

[avz]

The Russian language was never banned in Ukraine. That's a ludicrous statement. Stepan Bandera is a hero of the Ukrainian resistance to the Nazis and to the communists. He spent most of WWII in a Nazi concentration camp imprisoned by the Nazi for his resistance. The fact that commies hate him doesn't make him a bad guy, especially for the Ukrainians.

Additionally, Bandera is not implicated in the atrocities against the Jews in Ukraine as the Russians claim. OUN - Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists - had several factions. One faction was under the command of Bandera until he was arrested by the Nazis. Members of other factions of OUN - not under Bandera's command - did commit atrocities against the Jews especially in Belarus, but Bandera's faction never did.

There is nothing for Zelensky - a Jew - to apologize to Putler for, and there is nothing that should compel him to denouncing Stepan Bandera even if he doesn't particularly likes him. Stepan Bandera is a national hero for many Ukrainians, and now with the atrocities that the Russians are committing in Ukraine, Stepan Bandera is a national symbol for a much higher percentage of Ukrainians than before Putler's war.

LOL. Hitler put Stepan Bandera to prison after he heard him talking about starting his own country. The rest of the story about a brave hero who is against everybody is just fairytales. I don't think Poland is considering Stepan Bandera to be a national hero, so he might have done something wrong. Poland just supports Stepan Bandera ideology as they think it will hurt Russia.
The other poster said that Ukraine actualy has denounced Stepan Bandera. I hope he is right.

Ask yourself why is nobody celebrating today a lone heroes who is "against everybody" and strife only for the truth?

As for the Jew "question", one of the nazi commanders once said: "In my department I decide who is a Jew and who is not a Jew." Who do you think were most of the scientists who were working for the nazi's?

 

[ericwn]

Not taking sides however where do you place the USA when it occupies other Nations and please don’t feed me nonsense about “freeing the people”. I don’t remember anyone appointing the USA to be a police of the world or is it bullying such a fine line and so opaque.

I criticize the US where I feel it's needed as well, and there are plenty examples where I don't agree with them either, that is however not the topic of this discussion, and doesn't need to be dragged in. Let's focus on Apple, the sanctions from the UK as a response to the Russian invasion and war against Ukraine.

 

[ericwn]

Actually, both USA and Russia have the right to be a "global police" as a winners in WWII and whether somebody likes it or not the 1945 world order is still pretty much intact. USA was just more active about it and Russia was way too passive and not exactly "collecting" on its victories.

So yes it is not only Russia's right but it is also a responsibility to make sure that no neighboring territory declares the nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera as its national hero and have a tatoo parlors that can do a swastika tattoos let alone banning people from speaking their mother-tongue Russian language.

Invading a sovereign country is now a responsibility of sorts? So bad that exciting logic the US and other allies from WWII should also invade Ukraine then, right?