Apple Removes Major VPN Apps Including Proton and Red Shield From App Store at Request of Russian Government Agencies – Livedoor News

Apple removes major VPN apps like Proton and Red Shield from App Store at request of Russian government agencies

In Russia, the internet is strictly regulated and monitored, and SNS and VPN regulations have reportedly become particularly strong after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As an additional measure, the Russian government's Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), which is responsible for managing communications, asked Apple to remove the VPN app from the App Store, and Apple removed the app understandably.

❗ Apple, at the request of Roskomnadzor, has removed the Red Shield VPN app from the Russian App Store.
We are aware of at least one other VPN app that was removed at the same time as ours.

We encourage journalists and human rights organizations to publish information and… pic.twitter.com/kWZ4Ymw4gA— Red Shield VPN (@RedShieldVPN_ru) July 4, 2024

Proton, Nord, Red Shield and Le VPN VPN services removed from Russian App Store

https://zona.media/news/2024/07/04/appstore

Apple bows to Kremlin pressure to remove leading VPNs from Russian App Store – Novaya Gazeta Europe

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/07/04/Apple bows to Kremlin pressure to remove leading VPNs from Russian App Store

The VPN app “Red Shield VPN” has been removed from the Russian App Store due to a notice from Apple stating “We have received a request from Roskomnadzor to remove Red Shield VPN from the App Store, which deals with illegal content in Russia.” It revealed that it has been removed.

Red Shield VPN, one of the VPN apps that has been removed from the App Store, announced on its official social media site that it has received a notification from Apple about the app's deletion.

The content of the message was that “Roskomnadzor requested the removal of the application because it contains content that is illegal in Russia.”

Since it has not been removed from app stores in other countries/regions, the same app can still be downloaded and used in the Japanese App Store.

“Red Shield VPN” on the App Store

https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/red-shield-vpn/id1476245357

In addition to Red Shield VPN, other removed apps include Proton VPN and NordVPN.

In October 2023, a member of the ruling party, United Russia, said: “We have a plan to ban VPNs from March 2024,” and the plan appears to be moving forward, albeit with some delays.

Russia reportedly plans to ban VPN services from March 2024 – GIGAZINE

More than 10 VPN services have been blocked in Russia over the past few years, including Cloudflare WARP and Opera VPN, the Mediazona news site reported, and Roskomnadzor has moved to ban the entire protocol used by VPNs, especially since from 2022 onwards, experts say it will be increasingly difficult to avoid the blocking.