Apple keeps killing VPN apps upon Russia’s orders – Amnezia VPN is the last victim

The best VPN apps continue to disappear from the Apple App Store in Russia upon government request.

Earlier today, October 31, 2024, it was the time for Amenzia VPN, a popular free VPN service developed by Russian digital rights advocacy group Roskomsvoboda.

The provider shared the bad news on its Telegram channel in the early hours of the day. The team also confirmed to TechRadar that tests conducted by the AppleCensorship project could show how the app became unavailable only four hours – or even less than that – after developers received notifications from Apple about the Russian censor body’s order (see the image below).

“This is another confirmation of how lightning-fast Apple is in fulfilling censors’ demands,” an Amnezia VPN spokesperson told me. “For companies whose apps are removed, there is no time or opportunity to challenge the requests of the Russian authorities.”

The Big Tech giant has already removed over 60 VPN apps since July this year. A total of almost 100 services are currently unavailable for download in the official App Store in Russia.

As mentioned earlier, experts at Roskomsvoboda developed Amnezia VPN precisely to give people living under strict internet censorship a means to access the open web. The team claims, in fact, that Amenzia VPN is one of the most stable and effective VPNs working in Russia, Iran, and other countries where VPN protocols are monitored and blocked by authorities.

In September 2024, a large coalition of human rights organizations, media, and VPN providers wrote an open letter calling Apple to “immediately restore” VPN apps to its Russian App Store. According to experts, that letter remains…