Critics warn of Apple, Google ‘chokepoint’ repression

Critics warn of Apple, Google ‘chokepoint’ repression

WASHINGTON: The global dominance of tech giants serves as a convenient online chokepoint for authoritarian governments to crack down on dissent or rig elections, critics of Apple and Google said Friday. The companies were facing international outrage after pulling a Russian opposition voting app off their online marketplaces in response to authorities’ escalating pressure, including arrest threats.

Google and Apple, whose operating systems run on 99 percent of the world’s smartphones, have a stranglehold on the markets for the applications that allow users to do everything from watch movies to hail a ride. “The app stores are the new frontier for censorship,” Natalia Krapiva, tech legal counsel at rights group Access Now told AFP. “We’re witnessing a new stage of assault on digital rights.”

The companies face a growing pile of new legislation, legal trouble and regulators scrutiny over worries their dominance is a competition-killing monopoly. Concerns recently had been about consumers’ choice and app developers ability to avoid paying Apple an up to 30 percent cut on purchases made via its App Store. But after an app advising opposition supporters on how to vote out Kremlin allies in Russia’s parliamentary election was removed from the app stores of both Apple and