The scale of the VPN takedown in Russia is worse than previously reported, as VPN apps continue to disappear from Apple's local App Store.
This is the worrying finding emerging from an exclusive report by the App Censorship Project which found that 60 apps, including some of the best VPN services on the market, were quietly removed by Apple between early July and September 18, 2024. Russia’s censorship body Roskomnadzor publicly acknowledged just 25 VPN apps.
Although the Kremlin has been targeting VPN tools for more than a few months, the recent wave of removals began on July 4, when at least four VPN apps disappeared from Apple's App Store. In early September, 50 human rights organizations, media outlets, IT companies, journalistic groups, and public figures wrote an open letter calling on Apple to “immediately restore” VPN apps to its Russian App Store. However, at the time experts still believed the number of removed VPN apps to be 29.
98 Russian VPN apps not available on the App Store
“Apple's silent removal of nearly 60 VPN apps from the Russian App Store is not just alarming: it's a direct threat to digital freedom and privacy,” said Benjamin Ismail, director of the App Censorship Project.
Researchers used data from App Store Monitor (ASM) on AppleCensorship.com (a platform created by GreatFire experts to monitor app availability in Apple’s App Stores) to verify Roskomnadzor’s claims and assess the current number of VPNs in Russia that are not available in Apple’s local App Store.
A total of 360 VPN apps were tested worldwide across 175 app stores. As of September 16, 2024, 98 VPN Apps were not available in the Russian App Store. These include some of TechRadar's favourites, such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Proton VPN.
Did you know?
A VPN (virtual private network) is a security software that encrypts internet connections and spoofs users’ IP addresses to allow them to access geo-restricted content. This latter ability is exactly why citizens of Russia are forced to use VPN apps to bypass online restrictions – exactly what the Kremlin wants to prevent.
These results shed new light on the scale of VPN censorship in Russia. For starters, the report reveals a significant discrepancy between the number of apps taken down that authorities acknowledged (25) and the actual figure (around 60), suggesting that the scale of VPN takedowns is much higher.
The researchers also tracked removal patterns to see how they were concentrated on specific dates, suggesting coordinated actions. Overall, the findings show that Apple “continues to remove VPN apps from the Russian App Store without public acknowledgement, affecting more than 20% of identified VPN apps,” the report reads.
According to Ismail, Apple actively shares the blame for helping the Kremlin censor the web. “By unilaterally restricting access to these essential tools without transparency or due process, Apple is complicit in government censorship. We demand that Apple uphold its commitment to human rights and provide a clear explanation for these actions.”
Russia and VPNs
Both Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) rank Russia as one of the worst countries for internet freedom. This is due to the high levels of internet censorship that have intensified since the invasion of Ukraine began.
Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter) are inaccessible unless a VPN service is used, along with a growing list of websites including news sites and even official sites of some VPN providers. Since March, a new law in Russia criminalises the dissemination of information about ways to circumvent internet restrictions. All of this makes the silent VPN removals that have been occurring in Apple’s App Store in Russia since July a more serious problem.
“VPNs are a lifeline for journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens struggling to access information and communicate securely,” said Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future. “Apple’s actions not only undermine the privacy and security of millions of people, but also set a dangerous precedent for how tech companies can collaborate with authoritarian regimes.
However, as mentioned above, Russia's actions against VPN services are nothing new, as VPN apps disappeared even before the war in Ukraine began. Specifically, researchers found that 32 VPN apps were no longer available before July 2024. Among them, 14 apps had been removed even before February 2022.
Apple has removed four VPN service apps from the Russian AppStore: Proton VPN, Red Shield VPN, NordVPN, and Le VPN. According to a notice published by Red Shield and Le VPN, the company is referring to Roskomnadzor, the Russian internet watchdog. pic.twitter.com/BLuehvjn1hJuly 4, 2024
The published data suggests that we are seeing a rapid escalation of Russia’s actions against VPNs. Between July 4 and July 7 alone, more than a dozen apps were attacked, including ExpressVPN and CyberGhost. As of August 11, around 30 more apps have become unavailable in the local App Store.
According to the researchers, the concentration of these removals over a certain period suggests that it is not the providers who deliberately pull their services from the country. “If it were voluntary, it would be highly unlikely that multiple VPN owners would independently decide to pull their apps from Russia on the same specific days,” the report reads.
What is being done?
This is why experts are now calling on both Roskomnadzor and Apple to be more transparent about their app removal policies and actions.
“Apple can no longer claim that it's not its problem or that it's simply complying with local laws. As a highly visible and influential corporation, Apple should acknowledge the image it's creating through its cooperation with censors,” Sarkis Darbinian, a cyber lawyer at Russian digital rights advocacy group Roskomsvoboda and RKS Global, told me.
“The situation has reached such a point that anti-war songs by Russian punk and rap artists are being removed from Apple's Russian music platform. As a result, this may lead not only to technical but also cultural isolation of Russians and, ultimately, to the triumph of propaganda,” he added. “What other concessions will Apple make to the Russian authorities?”
So far, Russia's Google Play Store has not been affected by this VPN censorship initiative, which could indicate that the tech giant may be resisting Roskomnadzor's demands at the time of writing.
