APPLE COMPLIES WITH "LOCAL LAWS"

[Peter Terpstra]

And in this case, "local laws" means the Chinese government's censorship of
the Dalai Lama and Rebiya Kadeer. According to IDG News Service, "Apple
appears to have blocked iPhone applications related to the Dalai Lama [and
Rebiya Kadeer] in its China App Store."

The article continues "'Given that Apple has cooperated with China before (by
not distributing games), it's of course very likely that it's Apple, not the
developers, that are preventing certain apps from appearing,' said one China-
based app developer, who asked not to be named, in an e-mail."

Scores of companies doing business in China willingly comply with the Chinese
Government’s incessent demands to halt the free flow of information into and
out of China. Google censors its Chinese search results. Sony installed the
infamous Green Dam Software on its computers for sale in China. And Cisco's
aid has been paramount in the development of all sorts of censorship and
tracking technologies, most notably the Great Fire Wall.

Yahoo! even helped the Chinese government send two Chinese journalist to the
Laogai by providing details of their online activity to the government. “Both
journalists were serving ten year sentences in prison for using the web to
promote democracy, and both were sentenced after Yahoo! disclosed their other
online data to the Chinese government,” ABC News reported.

Of course, these businesses cooperate with the Chinese government for access
to one of the world's largest growing consumer markets (read $$$). Yet, in
doing so, these companies invariably aid in the repression of human rights and
the freedoms of Chinese citizens. Sounds like a good reason to enact the
Global Online Freedom Act.

For more on China's censorship, click here
http://laogai.org/our_work/internet-freedom

http://laogai.org/blog/apple-complies-local-laws

--
Amnesty International Report 2009 on China:
http://report2009.amnesty.org/en/regions/asia-pacific/china