User:Hcritchfieldjain/sandbox

Censorship by Apple
Yes, this article is all about the "removal or omission of information" from Apple or its subsidiaries. It includes information about the iTunes Books, iTunes Music, the App Stores, and more. The information here is certainly neutral although there may be a few places where a bit of restructuring could make the information more neutral. There isn't all that much information here to begin with, and several years have gone by since it was last updated, so this seems like a very feasible topic that probably has a good deal of verifiable sources. All claims appear to have a relevant citation and the talk page doesn't identify anywhere that needs an update. Not all of the sources are reliable. There are a few blogs that were cited and many of the sources are from websites that don't seem to meet the standards to be considered "reputable."
 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Is it written neutrally?
 * Does each claim have a citation?
 * Are the citations reliable?

Censorship of the iTunes Store
This article specifically focuses on the external censorship of the iTunes store. As such it is an interesting option for examining the ways in which governments censor large companies and how the two entities interact. The article is almost painfully short; only listing half a dozen short instances of external censorship, and each is written concisely and without any evident bias. Each claim is accompanied by several citations, however several citation seem unreliable. There is even a link to the Apple Press page, which seems like an obvious conflict of interest.
 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Is it written neutrally?
 * Does each claim have a citation? Are the citations reliable?

Free Internet Act
The Free Internet Act is an act created by Reddit users in order to limit censorship of the internet. It proves to be an interesting, and active, development that is actively working to counteract censorship of both the intentional, and unintentional, variety. While the article appears to be neutral, I see some issues in finding unbiased work when researching this. Since much of this project is performed by Reddit users, I find it hard to believe that facts will be clearly defined. There are a few claims in the article without proper citation, and worse there are numerous examples of citation of the direct Reddit forums. This seems to be an issue that needs resolution, however, I am unsure that I will be able to resolve it.
 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Is it written neutrally?
 * Does each claim have a citation? Are the citations reliable?

Geo-blocking
Geo-blocking refers to the blocking of certain content and information based on location. It appears that this is commonly used to "enforce price discrimination,... fraud prevention," and more. There seems to be a case here for the justification of censorship, but it also appears to be a subject that will be difficult to research. This topic seems to me to be controversial in some respects, yet the article is written neutrally. There are a few places that could use some work, but for the most part it looks fine. Each claim has a citation, and all the citations seem fairly reliable. I'd want to look into a few that may be reputable sources in foreign countries that I am simply not aware of, but upon first glance they appear to hold up.
 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Is it written neutrally?
 * Does each claim have a citation? Are the citations reliable?

Censorship by Apple
Redefine Scope:

Censorship by Apple refers to Apple Inc.'s removal, omission, or disruption of the spread of content or information from its services or subsidiaries, such as the iTunes Store and the App Store (iOS), in order to comply with Apple's company policies, legal demands, or various government censorship laws.

Add:

Telegram
In February 2018, Apple removed Telegram and Telegram X, encrypted messaging applications made by Telegram Messenger LLP, from the App Store due to content deemed inappropriate. Apple specifically cited instances of child pornography that was made available to users, and subsequently banned the apps until the situation could be dealt with.

InfoWars
Apple removed Infowars app from the App Store in September 2018 citing content that violated their policy against indecent material. Apple's ban simply prevents users from downloading the app, but does not restrict access to those with the app installed.

Tumblr
In November 2018, Apple removed the Tumblr app from the App Store due to Tumblr's failure to filter child pornography. Tumblr uses a database of known child pornography to automatically detect and remove child pornography from their website, however they found evidence of images that were not in the database present on Tumblr. In response to the ban, Tumblr removed the instances of child pornography and has since moved to ban all pornographic material on their platform as of December 17th, 2018.

iTunes Podcasts
On August 6th, 2018, Apple removed all but one of the podcasts created by Infowars, a website owned by Alex Jones, a far-right American conspiracy theorist and fake news content creator. Apple cited hate-speech as the reason for the removal of the content. Apple's decision to remove this content sparked other major technology companies, including Facebook, Youtube, Spotify, and Google, into removing Infowars content.

Restructured:

Replace the "Censorship of Taiwan" Section to "Censorship by Nation" to include a broader scope and to avoid adding an American bias to the article. (Potential other section titles include: "Censorship in Foreign Nations," "International Censorship," & "Censorship by Region" - to avoid the confusion that these instances of censorship are directly imposed by the governments of these nations and that Apple is not in some way responsible)

Censorship by Nation
The following are instances of censorship and information control imposed by Apple in App Stores other than the United States App Store. Many were imposed due to pressure from foreign governments and were put into effect to comply with laws.

China
As early as 2017, Apple restricted the emoji of the flag of Taiwan on devices used in China. In 2018, Apple's restrictions on sending the word "Taiwan" or sending an emoji representing the flag of Taiwan on iDevices using a Chinese country code or language settings caused the devices to crash. In 2018, Apple removed apps from the Chinese App store that allowed users to access content forbidden by the Chinese government. Many of these apps gave users access to VPN's, virtual private networks, that could allow them to securely circumvent the Great Firewall of China. Apple did not cite any Chinese laws, but claimed that the apps broke the laws of their local governments. Apple, which had took a firm stance on internet freedom and privacy during an investigation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, had received support from Golden Frog, which provides VyprVPN, but removed their app from the Chinese App Store nonetheless. Given this case, Apple is the first foreign global technology company to concede to the Chinese Government's demands.

In 2018, due to pressure from the Chinese government, Apple removed 25,000 gambling apps from the Chinese version of the App Store. Gambling apps are banned in China, yet many of these apps were improperly labelled as lottery apps, allowing them to pass through Apple's filtration algorithms and make it to Chinese consumers.

Iran
In February of 2017, Apple restricted payment services in Iranian apps to comply with U.S. Sanctions that forbade Iranian currency from entering the United States. The Iranian apps responded by implementing an Iranian electronic payment service.

In August of 2017, Apple removed many Iranian apps from the App Store citing U.S. Sanctions placed on Iran. While Apple has no stores in Iran nor specific version of the App Store for the nation, Iranian's citizens are able to get access to Apple products and content from external sources. Given the embargo on Iran, Apple removed many apps developed specifically for Iranians, including a ride-sharing service called Snapp, and a food delivery service called DelionFoods.

In April of 2018, Apple blocked the app Telegram in Iran in response to concerns that access to the encrypted messaging service presented a threat to Iranian national security.

Russia
In May of 2018, Apple played a role in the censorship of Telegram, an encrypted messaging app used globally. Interested in surveying the encrypted messages, the Russian Government demanded Telegram provide decryption keys to their Federal Security Service. When Telegram refused, the Russian Government threatened Apple with legal repercussions if they did not block Telegram from the Russian App Store and eliminate the push notification feature. The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has publicly claimed Apple has restricted Telegram users across the world from updating their app; an action that could cause problems for Telegram's ability to meet regulations.