# Apple removes Hong Kong protest and VPN apps after the National Security Law

Date: 2020

## The fact

In 2020 Apple removed Hong Kong protest-mapping and some VPN apps from the regional App Store after the National Security Law, a completed content instrument under Cook.

## Context

Neighbouring GCBD 2018 is mainland iCloud. Neighbouring FBI 2016 is a different sovereignty file. He did not write the Hong Kong NSL.

GCBD 2018 is neighbouring mainland data. China production is neighbouring assembly. FBI 2016 is neighbouring US encryption.

[Tim Cook](/people/tim-cook) has been Apple CEO since 24 August 2011. He does not write a DOJ complaint, a Commission DMA decision, an Irish Finance Act, or a Chinese Cyberspace Administration rule. Steve Jobs is a different, dead person. A product launch is not a labour statute. A privacy keynote is not a completed DMA compliance certificate. Keep those dates separate. A 10-K climate page is not a unique ppm. An assembler audit is not a unique suicide count as his personal tally. A DMA listing is not a completed sideload world. A DOJ complaint is not a breakup. TSMC fabricates; Foxconn assembles; App Review enforces.

## Evidence and sources

Apple carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

## What is established and what is not

Established: 2020 Hong Kong App Store protest-and-VPN removals, independently reported.

Not established: that he drafted the NSL, or a unique later turnout coefficient from the takedown.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Hong Kong law changed. Developers were removed. Users lost those listings in that storefront.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Apple removes Hong Kong protest and VPN apps after the National Security Law, not a later speech about Apple removes Hong Kong protest and VPN apps after the National Security Law.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Apple removes Hong Kong protest and VPN apps after the National Security Law on 2020-10-09 is not a licence to treat every later Apple communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Apple removes Hong Kong protest and VPN apps after the National Security Law into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He was CEO of App Review’s issuer. Hong Kong law changed. Developers were removed. Users lost those listings in that storefront. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Tim Cook: https://factrail.ai/people/tim-cook

## Drivers

- Digital-Rights and Platform-Power Regulation: https://factrail.ai/drivers/tech-digital-rights-regulation
- Democratic Resilience: https://factrail.ai/drivers/democratic-resilience

## Sources

- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-security-apple-idUSKBN26U0K4
- https://www.apple.com/legal/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/aapl-hk-apps-2020