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VPN Apps Vanish from Brazilian App Store (techradar.com) 93

Posted by msmash from the stranger-things dept.
Dozens of VPN apps have vanished from Brazil's Apple App Store, including popular services NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark. Simone Magliano, Head of Research at Top10VPN, reports that at least 30 VPN apps have become unavailable, though their store listings remained visible. Proton VPN, a major free VPN provider, confirmed the App Store issues, speculating it could be "a bug, or Apple implementing a secret censorship order." The move follows X, formerly Twitter, announcing over the weekend that it was shutting its Brazil operations, citing a "secret order" to arrest its legal representative if X didn't "comply with his [Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Morae] censorship orders."
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VPN Apps Vanish from Brazilian App Store More

VPN Apps Vanish from Brazilian App Store

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  • Well (Score:5, Insightful)

    by The-Ixian ( 168184 ) on Monday August 19, 2024 @01:25PM (#64718342)

    At least you can side load on Apple devices.... oh wait.

  • Socialists and communists ALWAYS silence their opposition. They need the unchallenged, iron fist of government to remain in control of the economy and everything else.

    • Socialists and communists ALWAYS silence their opposition. They need the unchallenged, iron fist of government to remain in control of the economy and everything else.

      Great point, except....
      "Brazil is a federal presidential constitutional republic, which is based on a representative democracy. "

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Seven Spirals ( 4924941 )
        Apparently, in their democracy, 51% or more of the sheeple elected representatives that didn't care for free speech. Democracy doesn't save you from censorship of the majority.

        • Re:Brazil: The Next Venezuela (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Rockoon ( 1252108 ) on Monday August 19, 2024 @02:30PM (#64718556)
          Maybe there should be some form of founding document that lays out that the government doesnt have the power to do this regardless of what the majority wants.
          • Yes, brilliant. Like what if someone put, like, the 10 most important rights that people really cared about in one document and then amended the constitution with it? These 10 Amendments could form the core of the law and we'd require a high bar (like another amendment requiring a bigger majority). Maybe the number one on the list could be called "The First Amendment" and then we could really highlight whenever someone tried to trash that.

          • We could always give them the United States constitution. Its not like the US is using it right now.

      • Why didn't they include free speech in their constitution, as the US did?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by higuita ( 129722 )

          hey, Snowden had free speech rights in the constitution for talking about what he saw wrongly in the US government, see how "protect state secrets" affect that free speech

          either you can have total free speech or you selectively select what yo censor

          • Why did they pardon Assange? What if we voted for absolute free speech because technology allows filters at clients without needing prior restraint?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by higuita ( 129722 )

              and who control the filters? what stops someone from abusing the filter? even if today they work well, in the future, other people can use their power to abuse and filter out opposition or even worse, go after opposition and silent then for good

              That line of thinking is the clueless politic thinking, solves a problem in the short run, but create worse problems in the long run. See how DCMA worked and how it being abused

        • The Brazilian Constitution does include free speech. The problem is, it doesn't put free speech above other fundamental rights, but on an equal footing with them. So, if there's a conflict between them, free speech generally loses, as the legal understanding is that anything specific wins over anything general. Hence, in Brazil one has free speech for everything except that for which speech isn't free.

          This isn't, strictly speaking, that different from what happens in the US, as the US also has exceptions to

          • ```
            the US also has exceptions to free speech (cue "screaming 'fire!' in a full theather" etc.), but our list of exceptions is much longer (e.g., racism is forbidden and leads to jail time without bail, followed by prison time), and Congress and the courts now and then expand it further.
            ```

            Literally none of that is true. Who told you that?

            Go read /Brandenburg v. Ohio/.

            • Literally none of that is true.

              None of what? The US Constitution part? The Brazilian Constitution part? Both?

              Go read /Brandenburg v. Ohio/.

              It instituted the "imminent lawless action" criteria, meaning there is a criteria for when free speech is curbed in the US. So, again, none of what?

      • You're confusing type of government with the economics model implemented by government.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by blue trane ( 110704 )

      ChatGPT says:

      "the comment you provided selectively focuses on socialist and communist regimes, ignoring the fact that many right-wing regimes throughout history have also silenced their opposition in similar, often extreme, ways. Here's a list of notable right-wing or authoritarian regimes that used censorship, repression, and violence to maintain power:

      Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, where political opponents were imprisoned, executed, and media tightly controlled.

      Francisco Franco's Spain and Augusto Pinoc

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by ne0n ( 884282 )
        Authoritarians of any stripe require censorship to maintain their grip on power. Cuba, Venezuela, USSR, North Korea, China, etc. It's not rocket surgery dude. No need to resort to cherry picking or pointing fingers at past authoritarians to figure out that today's commies are fucking awful.

        • Again, why cherry-pick out of your list Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Iran, is Myanmar communist?, Egypt, etc.? And is Russia really still communist?

      • I'd add Batista, Somoza, and Stroessner to the list also.
    • That explains why Lula won't deny the recent rigging of Venezuelan elections. Shameless.

    • Um.. EVERY Elite silences their opposition.

      Look at what has been done to EVERY Whisteblower in the United States...

    • ... need the unchallenged, iron fist of government ...

      Yeah, it's lucky the right-wing demands small government, until they nationalize airport security, and oppose censorship, until their richest true believers own Twitter, Truth Social and Rumble.

      ... control of the economy ...

      Yeah, it's the 'money is bad' crowd that manipulate the economy.

      J.D. Vance has been in the Billionaire's club for a long time, even though he doesn't qualify. It disturbing how much time rich people spend together: Sure, they go to meetings and holidays and 5th Avenue NY, they'll see other rich people. These peo

  • Don't attribute to malice... (Score:4, Informative)

    by esperto ( 3521901 ) on Monday August 19, 2024 @01:43PM (#64718386)

    I'm brazilian and just checked apple appstore and all VPN apps listed are there, seems to really to be just a bug or something, there is no reason to block VPN services just because xwitter didn't follow orders, there has been in the past blockage of entire apps like whatsapp and telegram and VPNs were not block then and I doubt they would be blocked now.

    And about xwitter offices leaving brazil to avoid prosecution, it will only make more difficult to them to re-establish services if/when they are blocked by not following a judicial order.

    • Re:Don't attribute to malice... (Score:4, Funny)

      by MobileTatsu-NJG ( 946591 ) on Monday August 19, 2024 @01:56PM (#64718438)

      I'm brazilian and just checked apple appstore and all VPN apps listed are there, seems to really to be just a bug or something,

      Shush. We're here to bitch about Apple, quit ruinin' our fun.

    • there is no reason to block VPN services just because xwitter didn't follow orders

      As a Brazilian I assume English is your second language and therefore give you a pass, but to clarify that is not at all what was implied in TFS. The summary postulated that Apple may have received their own secret order and compared it to the one given to Twitter.

      • I understood that, my point is that there is no reason to have a court order to block VPN apps to block alternative access xwitter because they are not the target of the court orders, and even xwitter itself is not blocked, preemptively ordering third -parties to be blocked before the main target would be absurd.

        • My point is they are probably two unrelated things. Just because the court ordered one thing from Twitter, doesn't mean they didn't order something different from Apple. It isn't beyond reason that a court ordered VPN apps to be blocked (though it clearly wasn't if they are still fine as you say) since controlling communication is basically the modus operandi of a Strongman.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        there is no reason to block VPN services just because xwitter didn't follow orders

        As a Brazilian I assume English is your second language and therefore give you a pass, but to clarify that is not at all what was implied in TFS. The summary postulated that Apple may have received their own secret order and compared it to the one given to Twitter.

        Given how much of a bullshit artist Musk is, I'm willing to bet that "secret censorship order" was something he made up.

        Far more likely that Musk and Twitter were about to be publicly held accountable for their actions by the Brazilian government (possibly to do with Bolsanaro's attempted coup), so they ran hoping to bury as much as they could. It'll still happen though, in the UK and EU, social media and Musk in particular have gone too far. The trial will be quite public though... rather ironic that s

    • Can you get starlink in Brazil?

      • yes, and it is currently a pretty big market for them, as far as I know.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nazsco ( 695026 )
        The biggest clients of startlink in the world are illegal loggers. And guess where you have tons of illegal loggers?

        The BR federal police apprehends starlink dishes after dishes in the amazon, after raiding illegal camps, and spaceX never collaborate with them to find the subscribers.

        • What if you paid those loggers not to log?

          • What if you paid those loggers not to log?

            If the US paid every person living on the Amazon region US minimum wage, that'd increase their wealth between 6 and 10 times, moving them from below the poverty line (in US terms) all the way into what counts down here as the middle class. For that much money they'd not only avoid logging but become dedicated florestal police preventing anyone else from logging.

            There are about fifteen million people living there, so this would cost on the ballpark of $230 billion dollars per year, give or take.

    • I'm brazilian and just checked apple appstore and all VPN apps listed are there, seems to really to be just a bug or something,

      Does this bug affect any non-VPN apps? If it only affects VPN apps, that would be fishy.

  • Like most countries, Brazil has rules. You obey 'em or you don't do business in Brazil. It's not just repressive national regimes that dislike the open nature of the pure WWW, even the US imposes limits. Brazil's rules are more draconian than ours (IMHO). Among them, the fact that the government ultimately owns the telephone lines and other methods of communication in Brazil (not unlike many of our Allies here in the US, BTW). Internally there are a few private providers, but it all still goes through

    • It's not just repressive national regimes that dislike the open nature of the pure WWW, even the US imposes limits.

      Tell us, what limits does the US impose that are so similar to the free speech assault in Brazil? I'm definitely not saying the US is perfect or that we couldn't use some more free speech but I'd like to hear exactly what you are comparing, please. I have a feeling whatever you're going to bring up isn't even close to what's being done in the UK or Brazil. Arresting people for CSAM isn't the same as arresting the political opposition.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nazsco ( 695026 )
        VPN access is automatically blocked from id.me and other federal online identity providers.

        You IP and telecom subscriber data is part of your gov login.
        • Okay, is that the best you've got? One government site that provides ID services is blocking anonymous access for obvious reasons and this is supposed to count the same as some ridiculous Darth Vader judge banning/censoring the political opposition? Seriously?

        • Wanted to check my bank balance from Starbucks without giving away my money. I didn't need anonymity, just security.

          But why are you trying to access US federal online services from Brazil?

          • But why are you trying to access US federal online services from Brazil?

            That's a strange comment about a government which requires its citizens or green card holders to use it's federal online services regardless of where they live or work.

            I can only assume you've never left the USA. Doing so is like a bad breakup, it follows you wherever you go unless you're willing to give up your residence / citizenship.

            As an expat myself (from a country far less demanding than the USA) I constantly use the federal government services of one country from another.

            • I can't afford to be a true world traveler. The one time I visited Europe, it was a two-year paid vacation on the American plan. With that said, I think what ID.me is doing is - either correctly or incorrectly - recognizing the use of anonymizing software, and that software is exactly antagonistic to the primary function of the ID.me service. Reliable identification over the internet can't be done anonymously.

          • Why not?

            I recently logged into DHS from Costa Rica, to get info about my Global Entry application.

        • So you can not login when abroad?

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by mmell ( 832646 )
            ID.me is an identity verification process. It's not about login credentials or anything login related. It's about identification. It's not so much being outside the US that screws the pooch, but VPN's are by definition anonymizing technology. ID.me exists to verify your identity. VPN's exist to obfuscate your identity. One of the tools we use to validate your identity (not your login credentials) is your IP address. I don't know if ID.me blocks non-US geolocated IP's, but if ID.me detects anonymizati

        • VPN access is automatically blocked from id.me and other federal online identity providers.

          I just tested this. It's false.

          Using Express VPN, I just logged into login.gov and id.me, no problem.

      • Killing people who recruit for Al Qaeda. Arresting people who defend Al Qaeda. Arresting people who train "terrorists" to lobby congress. You can make a pretty long list if you start dealing with people who "support" our enemies. Didn't the feds shut down RT, the Russian TV network, in the United States? In fact, once you declare a group or organization "terrorist" pretty much any support for it is illegal, including verbally endorsing it.

        • Killing people who recruit for Al Qaeda.

          Like who? The only one I can think of is the American Obama drone struck in Yemen. Obama should have faced charges for that, too.

          Arresting people who defend Al Qaeda.

          Got any examples? I see a ton of people on Twitter/X that defend islamic extremism and they are clearly American, not afraid (tons in Michigan), and doing it every day. I call bullshit. Cite some arrested for rhetorically defending Al Qaeda (not for material support).

          Didn't the feds shut down RT, the Russian TV network, in the United States?

          Nope. Not in the slightest. I can still go there, no sweat. So can anyone with a regular ISP in the USA. Works like

          • RT has web site that is still accessible but their cable television channel was shut down.

            Obama has not faced any charges or even approbation, nor have any of rest of the people who actually carried out the attack. Had he been in the United States he would have been arrested for encouraging people to join Al Qaeda.

            Holder Supreme Court decision was 180 degrees the opposite of what you claim. It found even non-violent advocacy was "material support". It upheld prosecution of the Humanitarian Law Project p

      • Arresting people for CSAM isn't the same as arresting the political opposition.

        Um ... in the US we literally arrested the political opposition. Last year.

        • Are you talking about them going after Trump? That's a pretty good example and definitely shows the US is sliding toward banana republic status, but I'd argue we aren't quite there, yet. I'm sure they'll pass some "hate speech" laws here at some point and we'll have to deal with the results of that, but it's not here, yet. They didn't arrest Trump for his speech, either.
        • They were arrested for all of the crimes they committed while saying what they were saying, not for what they said.

    • but in the usa apple will not help the FBI unlock an phone!

    • It's not just repressive national regimes that dislike the open nature of the pure WWW, even the US imposes limits.

      You think the US isn't repressive?

      • Compared to the UK? No, the US isn't especially repressive. Compared to Canada? No, the US isn't especially repressive.

        Compared to Russia? The US is the epitome of freedom. Moreso for China or North Korea. And the fact that I can say thinks like this publicly and non anonymously proves my point most effectively, I think?

        Game. Set. Match.

        • " And the fact that I can say thinks like this publicly and non anonymously proves my point most effectively,"

          No, it doesn't. All that proves is that you don't think the things the nation does now are repressive.

          "I think?"

          Good one! Now pull the other one.

          • Sure, my freedom of speech is preserved because I'm praising my government. Why do you feel safe posting criticism of our government? Could it be because you trust the US Government's constitutional protection of your free speech rights? Or are you just dull?

            It really has to be one or the other. Now, if the jack-booted SS police come to your door and drag you off to a concentration camp somewhere, let us know.

            • Why do you feel safe posting criticism of our government?

              I do not feel safe. I do it even though I do not feel safe, because it must be done, even if the cost is high. That's only one difference between us.

  • Side-loading used to be the only way to get apps on your smartphone or PDA. Bring back Handango.

  • expect anything different from apple.

  • yall fell for an advertisement (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nazsco ( 695026 ) on Monday August 19, 2024 @03:31PM (#64718770) Journal
    The "news source" is not a real news source. It is just a front for selling VPN apps!

    Even the Biography for the "journalist" is likely fake/AI, and manages to mention VPN twelve times. It's all a big SEO scam.

    They just did a piece to the brazillian market, which is full of maga-tards as you can see from the other comments here, who hate the judges and love musk, just like US-maga-tards.

    They published an obvious low effort lie (everyone can still access the VPN apps), which is very very easily verifiable (use your freaking vpn to get a BR IP and check! takes less than a minute!), yet you geniuses decided to instead blast your obtuse political views as if the obviously fake news is real!

  • If only you could just download apps from the internet. What an incredible world that would be if you could just go online and download and run any app you want. If only someone would invent the technology to do that! Oh wait.

  • Democracy only works among friends because democracy is inherently weak. Either you have the power to kill your enemies, or you are a slave. Revolutions require killing the enemy until survivors yield or cease to exist. If you're serious, finish the rest off so they cease to be a threat or you will fight them forever. Pretending differently is a waste of own-side lives, the only lives that matter.

    Military illiterates overly impressed by state power should rewatch the Taliban victory anniversary parade of al

    • Clearly you think humans are vicious, barbaric animals. Look in a mirror. If you still support your viewpoint, please remove yourself from the gene pool. That's what you want, isn't it? So we can be better than that?

      • Clearly you think humans are vicious, barbaric animals.

        Of course they are. Otherwise, they would have gone extinct at the hands of Neanderthals and Denisovans.

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