Apple will start reporting government requests to remove apps from the App Store
Apple issued one of its bi-annual transparency reports today, and apart from the usual numbers on account takedown requests, the company issued a statement saying that it’ll soon start reporting government requests to take down apps from the App Store. These requests will relate to alleged legal and / or policy provision violations, Apple says.
These numbers will tell us just how often governments are trying to block access to certain apps, and how many of those orders are actually obeyed. Google doesn’t yet report these numbers specifically for the Play Store. I’d be interested to know why the requests were filed and what apps were affected, but Apple hasn’t said if it’ll call apps out by name.
As for takedown requests over the last...