Every month, 75 million Russians use the social network VKontakte. It is the most popular remedy of its kind in the Federation. Apple just removed them from their store. The same fate befell the country’s most popular mail service Mail.ru.
Apple has removed two important applications for Russians from its store: the most popular social network VKontakte and Mail.ru email.
Russians talk about discrimination against users from this country
This move by the tech giant was immediately criticized by Russian Internet regulator Roskomnadzor and demanded an explanation. The regulator wrote that “such discriminatory restrictions infringe on the rights of Russian Internet users to freely receive information and communicate and are unacceptable.” Both remote applications must be installed on phones sold in Russia, in accordance with the decree of the Ministry of Digital Development.
What does Apple say? The company claims that the removal of VKontakte and Mail.ru was due to the need to comply with sanctions recently imposed by the UK on Russian organizations, some of which are affiliated with VKontakte.
“These apps are distributed by developers, most of which are owned or controlled by one or more UK government sanctioned sites,” an Apple spokesperson said.
Only VKontakte is used by more than 75 million people a month - it is the most popular social network in Russia, leaving Facebook far behind. Social network authorities have assured users who have the application on their mobile device that they will not lose access to it. Russians who wish to use the social network VKontakte can do so through the mobile platform website and desktop applications.
Source: Wprost
