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- Apple and Google ordered to remove Important Stories' app in Russia
- Launched last February, the IStories app works in Russia without a VPN
- The request echoes similar removal orders targeting circumvention tools
A Russian investigative news outlet has just become the latest target of the country's censoring body, Roskomnadzor.
As reported directly by the targeted outlet — Important Stories (IStories) — on Wednesday, authorities have ordered both 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 — to remove "information distributed in violation of the law." Failing to comply will lead to the app's removal. The notification directed to Google was found in the Lumen database.
While it's not clear what information IStories should remove, the removal order could have been issued under a March 2024 law that criminalizes the spread of information about ways to circumvent internet restrictions.
The IStories mobile app, in fact, "works in Russia without VPN," according to the news outlet website. The team launched it last February to ensure information would reach Russians despite the latest wave of internet censorship and VPN restrictions.
Roskomnadzor's request echoes similar removal orders targeting circumvention tools. On the same day that IStories was contacted by Apple, the Big 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
Despite Roskomnadzor lacking precise details about alleged illegal content, the regulator accused the application 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 around sensitive topics like the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Talking to TechRadar, Anin pointed out that Russian authorities have been doing "basically everything to block all sorts of truths inside the country," since the Ukraine invasion began.
Millions of websites, including those of major international news outlets, have been blocked since then, in fact. All major social media platforms have also been restricted, with the latest being the popular messaging app Telegram.
A less than 2-month-old app is now the target. "It already had thousands of downloads, but it's just a brand new app," said Anin, 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 Google Play Store in Russia, at the time of writing. "And I hope Apple and Google don't become instruments of censorship in defense of an authoritarian regime," he added.
Yet, while Google has been mostly resisting these requests so far, Apple has largely accommodated Roskomnadzor's orders. In 2024, for example, Apple removed the app Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, known as Svoboda, from its Russian App Store following a similar request. The same year, the Big Tech giant also delisted at least 60 VPN apps.
IStories is now urging all people in the country to download the app before the big tech giants may comply with the removal orders.
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