Apple complies with Kremlin censorship, removes app providing news from northern regions

Russians can no longer download the RFE/RL app serving the news-sites of Siberia.Realities and North.Realities.

Roskomnadzor, the Russian censorship agency, told the U.S. technology giant Apple to remove the Russian language app containing news from the two regional outlets of Radio Free Europe; North.Realities and Siberia.Realities. The notification pointed to the news sites being declared “undesirable.”Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was included to the Justice Ministry’s register of “undesirable organisations” in February this year. Russian citizens risk five years in jail for cooperating with organisations on the list. In short, the authoritarian regime uses the law to suppress voices critical to the country’s leadership.

RFE/RL has posted a warning on its news site informing Russian citizens inside the country to be aware of the risk involved with linking, sharing, contacting, commenting on, or saving content from its online services. The law was signed by Vladimir Putin in 2015 and is aimed at shutting down any organization that survive the “foreign agent” designation. The list includes media, NGOs and international organisations Russia considers a threat to national security. As of November 14th, the list consists of 193 organizations. Among other truthful media on the list are iStories, Bellingcat, The Insider, Meduza, Novaya Gazeta Europe, TV Rain and The Moscow Times.

North.Realities covers news from Russia’s northwestern regions, including Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Karelia, while Siberia.Realities has a focus on Russia’s vast northern regions east of the Ural Mountains.The non-profit news outlet is funded by a grant from the United States Agency for Global Media. RFE/FL operates under full editorial freedom.