APKMirror is no longer allowing downloads of TikTok, Lemon8, citing US Bill H.R.7521, setting a dangerous precedent for sideloading applications
APKMirror is no longer allowing downloads of TikTok, Lemon8, citing US Bill H.R.7521, setting a dangerous precedent for sideloading applications
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24607999
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24607994
Currently, you are unable to view the APKMirror web page. Instead, you get the following message shown in the screenshot below.
Tiktok downloads are currently blocked in the United States due to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
The link in this statement leads to the following page, containing the bill that was passed:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521
This sets a dangerous precedent going forward for the Android community which sideloads applications onto their phones, being that APKMirror is the largest mirror of APKs for Android phones. It's also possible for them to add more apps to be included under this bill, and possible for another bill to be passed which may act as an even more broad blanket to target specific groups of people (e.g. LGBTQ+, people of color), messaging applications that are truly secure (e.g. Signal), and so on.
Then of course there a very real possibility of our president forcing the integration of software updates into both Android (and possibly even iOS smartphones) that can forcibly remove applications for the "sake of national security".
Blocked APKMirror links:
Important to note this is cloudflare, their hosting provider, and not apkmirror making this decision.
Not saying they wouldn't do so if cloudflare wasn't already
I'm not faulting them on that. The law is very unclear right now and I'm sure they don't want to get caught up in the drama. They are tiny compared Google Play do any lawsuit or public attention would crush them.
Governments and ISPs should not be allowed to block anything. Deliver my packets and don't meddle with them. Giving them that power will lead to abuse.
CSAM?
We have to do it; otherwise we might fall prey to.... Socialism!!
Similar to this bollocks we have in the UK, stopping Internet users accessing content leads to one or two things.
Geo proxies to bypass it, or some poor soul downloading malware hosted to fill that gap. Stupid stupid stupid.