Apple caves to the Kremlin, for a minute
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Silicon Valley companies responded with uncharacteristic speed and conviction. Meta, Google and Twitter (back when it was still Twitter and still had some principles) put out statements declaring their support for Ukraine and their intentions to go after Russian state propaganda on their platforms. Even Apple — with its sleek products that seem to always know what we need before we need it and its notoriously tight-lipped overlords — took a stand, suspending iPhone sales and Apple Pay.
But Apple has kept its services available for iPhone and Mac users inside the country, and the App Store — iPhone users’ window to much of what the internet has to offer — has become a place where Russians can find some pockets of information not tailored by the Kremlin. In April 2022, the embattled “Smart Vote” app, run by jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, even reappeared in the App Store after being blocked for months by both Apple and the Google Play store.
But last week, Apple’s commitment seemed to falter when a popular news and commentary podcast suddenly disappeared from the company’s podcast app for users across the globe. What happened? That’s the question on many people’s minds, and it’s also the name of the censored podcast from Meduza, one of Russia’s leading independent news sources, which now operates in exile like most of its counterparts.
“Apple deletes arguably Russia’s best podcast because Russian officials have asked for it,” said Anton Barbashin, a political analyst and the editor of Riddle Russia. “I’ll remind everyone that Meduza has the best reach into Russian audience,” he wrote on X. “It only makes perfect sense for Russian state to shut them down. But WTF, @Apple?”