No, it is Apple twisting the words of the UK government. Read this part of the article and tell me that Apple has not already done this for China's CCP, had iOS changed/modified to suit that of the CCP with no notice, no review and no appeals process. Apple is being very hypocritical here towards the UK government.
Ok, let's review.
🇨🇳 China's policy for Apple was to host all iCloud infrastructure in China on servers owned and operated by the Chinese government. This would also mean hosting iCloud decryption keys in China as decryption keys are part of the total iCloud package. The same keys Apple have access to for everyone else's data (without ADP, we'll get to that) which by extension means the US government has access to it via secret court orders and 'covert' surveillance programs that Apple pretends not to know about. Yes, that includes data on everyone outside of the US too because only China (as far as I know) have a policy where THEY control the encryption keys for THEIR populace.
China's decision was motivated by having the ability to legally request data on Chinese users via
China's legal system rather than having to go through the USA's legal system first. If you think this is unacceptable ask yourself if we as Americans or Brits should have to go through the Chinese court system to get data on American or British criminals using TikTok to sell drugs for example. In fact we've been bashing Bytedance over the head trying to go EVEN FURTHER than China by demanding TikTok be partially or fully owned by a PRIVATE American company (Oracle), not even the state.
They also take the intelligent position that data generated or uploaded by Chinese people belongs to the Chinese people, and by extension the state, rather than whatever company is offering the service. We don't do that in the West because our standard model treats the service provider as the owner of the data (read the EULAs of basically any online service you can think of). This is important, along with the Great Firewall, in preventing foreign interference in their populace. If you're a rising world power on the verge of fully eclipsing the incumbent powers you would of course be wary of those same powers trying to sabotage you.
Does the average American know that TikTok data is already required to be hosted in America with strict surveillance and rules regarding what can get sent back to China? Most Americans don't see that as scary, in fact we think it's good. What makes you righteous in your opinion on US TikTok data policies but the same doesn't apply to Chinese people's opinion on Apple's data policies in China? Why are you so sure Chinese people aren't just as concerned about the US interfering with their population via control of digital platforms (Apple/Google/YouTube) in the same way you're concerned about TikTok? What makes you think Chinese people distrust their government? Is it because you don't trust yours?
I for one think western countries should have stronger data protections to prevent foreign entities with selfish political motivations from sabotaging you. Look at Europe, they are almost entirely reliant on US owned and operated software. They're hopeless.
Now here's the part that's going to frustrate people:
Advanced Data Protection is available for Chinese iCloud users according to both Craig Federighi and the Chinese iCloud terms of service which means they are entitled to the same E2EE features as everyone else. Yes, that means Chinese people in China can delete their encryption keys from Apple servers in China which by extension means the Chinese government can't get access to their data through some scary Gulag backdoor or whatever we're supposed to scared of on behalf of the Chinese people.
🇬🇧 The UK wants to ban End to End Encryption, that has been their stated end goal for years. This would mean no Advanced Data Protection for UK citizens. Nobody in the UK that actually understands this policy wants it. So no, equating what the UK is doing with what China is a stretch.
If the UK get their way, the average Chinese citizen will have more encryption features available to them than the average UK citizen. I'd like to see how the BBC and NYT navigate their way around that.