Whether it was intentional or not, Apple recently made a switch to the hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) internet communications protocol for the App Store. When the Cupertino California company did this, it made it impossible for censors in China to block users from searching for certain types of apps.
Previously, searching for VPN apps, which are popular with Chinese users for allowing access outside of the firewall of China, would cause connections to the App Store to reset. This kept Chinese users from being able to download such apps if they were available in the Chinese App Store. But this is currently not the case, since HTTPS keeps the firewall from interrupting the connection to apps. The Next Web and Greatfire (a site that monitors Chinese Internet censorship) performed testing and found that certain apps blocked under HTTP are available now that HTTPS is being used to access the App Store.
One thing that is certain here is that it’s unlikely that the authoritarian government of China will allow the loophole to remain open. It’s only a matter of time before they take preventive measures to censor the content again. We’ll have to wait and see what the government does next.
Source: CNET, Greatfire, The Next Web
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