- Apple and Google ordered to remove the Top Stories application in Russia
- Launched last February, the IStories app works in Russia without a VPN
- The request echoes similar takedown orders targeting circumvention tools.
A Russian investigative outlet has just become the latest target of the country’s censorship body, Roskomnadzor.
As directly reported by the target media outlet, Important Stories (IStories), on Wednesday, authorities ordered Apple and Google to remove the IStories mobile app from their official app stores in Russia.
Apple contacted the editorial team about Roskomnadzor’s demands: remove “information distributed in violation of the law.” Failure to comply will result in removal of the app. The notification addressed to Google was found in the Lumen database.
While it is unclear what information IStories should remove, the removal order could have been issued under a March 2024 law that criminalizes the dissemination of information about ways to circumvent internet restrictions.
The IStories mobile app, in fact, “works in Russia without a VPN,” according to the news outlet’s website. The team launched it last February to ensure information reached Russians despite the latest wave of internet censorship and VPN restrictions.
Roskomnadzor’s request echoes similar takedown orders targeting circumvention tools. On the same day that Apple contacted IStories, the tech giant also notified AdGuard that its TrustTunnel client would be removed because it “includes content that is illegal in Russia.”
IStories App Censorship: What We Know
Even though Roskomnadzor lacks precise details about the alleged illegal content, the regulator accused the app of spreading “fakes” and “destabilizing the socio-political situation in the Russian Federation.”
Founded in 2020 by exiled Russian journalists Roman Anin and Olesya Shmagun, IStories is an independent news outlet specializing in investigative journalism on sensitive topics such as the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Speaking to TechRadar, Anin noted that Russian authorities have been doing “basically everything they can to block all kinds of truths inside the country” since the invasion of Ukraine began.
In fact, millions of websites have been blocked since then, including those of major international media outlets. All major social media platforms have also been restricted, the latest being the popular messaging app Telegram.
The goal now is an app less than two months old. “It’s already had thousands of downloads, but it’s just a new app,” Anin said, arguing that these requests show that “every source of truth is now seen as a threat.”
Anin confirmed to TechRadar that the IStories mobile app is still available on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store in Russia, as of this writing. “And I hope that Apple and Google do not become instruments of censorship in defense of an authoritarian regime,” he added.
However, while Google has largely resisted these requests until now, Apple has largely abided by Roskomnadzor’s orders. In 2024, for example, Apple removed the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty app, known as Svoboda, from its Russian App Store following a similar request. The same year, the tech giant also delisted at least 60 VPN apps.
IStories is now urging everyone in the country to download the app before the big tech giants comply with takedown orders.
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