Although Apple professes to defend human rights and free speech, the firm is eliminating tens of thousands of programmes from its App Stores throughout the world without a direct takedown request from governments, and without any public transparency.” app removal transparency
In a letter sent to the board of directors ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting next month, Apple shareholders encouraged the directors to vote in support of improved transparency reports that would show how many applications Apple removes from its App Store at the direction of governments.
Azzad Asset Management, located in Virginia, and Open MIC, a shareholder engagement organisation, submitted the documents for iMore’s consideration. The preceding statement reads:
Proposal 6 on the Company’s proxy should be supported, and we are writing to encourage you to do so. Proposal asks the Board of Directors to amend Apple’s Transparency Reports to offer detailed explanations of the number and categories of app deletions from the App Store that may reasonably be anticipated to hinder freedom of speech or information access.
Applications deleted from the App Store “do not adequately disclose the sorts or categories of apps that Apple has removed from the App Store, nor do they analyse the degree to which either company-initiated or government requested app deletions may impair human rights,” the complaint states.
According to Open MIC, the data referenced states:
According to reports, Apple is eliminating tens of thousands of apps from its App Stores throughout the world without government request and without any public transparency, despite its claims to defend human rights and freedom of speech. Pro-democracy activists and advocates of open access to information and communication may find many of these applications useful. Apple’s existing transparency reports, on the other hand, provide just a small percentage of app deletions, while missing important contextual information about the categories of applications deleted and what behaviours led their removal.
For example, according to an article in the New York Times, 55,000 applications have been pulled from China’s App Store since 2017, with the majority being yanked “because the Chinese government was concerned.” According to the report, Apple’s preemptive measures have an unfavourable effect on human rights and that Apple is failing to meet its professed human rights obligations. It finds that “more disclosure is desperately required” since this failure “poses reputational, legal, and financial dangers.”
At the Annual Meeting of Shareholders on March 4, shareholders will vote on this and other resolutions.