Apple Reverses Decision to Ban Controversial Hong Kong App

George Herman

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Last week, Apple banned the crowd-sourced app HKmap.live, which allowed people to track protests and police activity in Hong Kong. According to the tech company, the application “contains content – or facilitates, enables, and encourages an activity – that is not legal … Specifically, the app allowed users to evade law enforcement”. The developers commented that the app was quickly approved for download on Android devices, making Apple’s decision quite confusing.

"Your app contains content – or facilitates, enables, and encourages an activity – that is not legal … Specifically, the app allowed users to evade law enforcement."@Apple assume our user are lawbreakers and therefore evading law enforcement, which is clearly not the case.

— HKmap.live 全港抗爭即時地圖 HK Protest Live Map (@hkmaplive) October 1, 2019

However, Apple lifted the ban on Friday, making the app available in Hong Kong.

Thanks everyone, @Apple finally made the right decision. Will update later as things are going crazy in #HK now. pic.twitter.com/PsnNry0V21

— HKmap.live 全港抗爭即時地圖 HK Protest Live Map (@hkmaplive) October 4, 2019

Looks like it's not yet available for download
"Congratulations! We're pleased to let you know that your app, HKmap 即時地圖, has been approved for the App Store. Once your app has been released, it can take up to 24 hours before your app becomes available on the App Store."

— HKmap.live 全港抗爭即時地圖 HK Protest Live Map (@hkmaplive) October 4, 2019

The reverse of their original decision could be influenced by the caused uproar among users, who argued that the app does not promote illegal activities, but simply allows people to note locations.

The developers of HKmap.live say that the app is created to show events happening in Hong Kong, and people can use that information how they like. They also say that:

We don’t encourage any advice on the map in general. Our ultimate goal is safety for everyone.

It was also stated by many people, including the creators of HKmap.live, that the location feature can be seen in many other apps, i.e. Waze, which was not affected by the ban.

Trying to reason them, no reply yet. Wonder they will ban Waze for evading traffic cams lol.

— HKmap.live 全港抗爭即時地圖 HK Protest Live Map (@hkmaplive) October 2, 2019

This led users to think that maybe Apple is just “sucking up to China”.

Apple rejects a map that only displays Hong Kong locations as illegal? Maybe this really is Apple sucking up to China rather than f bureaucratic screw-up? @HKmaplive only reports locations: road closures, tear gas, police presence. IT REPORTS LOCATIONS AND DOES NOTHING ELSE. https://t.co/xwt4OJ1jaV

— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) October 2, 2019

This is not the first time Apple has been accused of complying with requests from the Chinese authorities. Even the Chinese-owned platform TikTok faces accusations of censoring protest-related content. None of the companies have commented on these claims.

Hong Kong protests continue to escalate, and even passed the ‘5 month’ mark. Regardless of the police situation in the semi-autonomous province, Hongkongers continue to fight for their very right to exist autonomously from the Chinese mainland.