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Comment by tjpnz | Hacker News Reader

The apps would be delisted in the UK app stores and will eventually stop working for existing users when not updated. That's also a security issue in itself.

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For something like this you must start blocking at the network level, simply allowing the traffic would make these trivial to bypass via even something as simple as a web browser.

It'll be a matter of installing the app "from unknown source" then?

Can't do that on iOS.

Technically you can, but the hoop jumping isn’t ideal.

If only iOS devices had web browsers…

No one using authoritarian computing platforms will fare well at resisting authoritarians.

Which, unfortunately, is a rather risky situation considering for instance all the rogue ChatGPT-branded extensions and apps people downloaded without a second thought to their legitimacy.

We have been conditioned to view branding as the certificate of legitimacy, and that simply is not true for the Internet where branding can be copied and pasted in seconds.

I doubt they still do it but for whatever reason for a while WhatsApp loads to offer it's APK on its website.

Bet it saw very few installs wonder if we'll go full circle.

The risk can be reduced with open source code, verified by the community. Usually when the "branding" gets too authoritarian, people reach for the FOSS version that seems the most trusted.

Or get signed and trusted apps from a community run alternative "app store" like F-Droid, Arch, or Debian.

Stop using centralized software distribution systems. F-Droid, Debian etc are run by international communities, support Tor, and cannot be censored as long as we maintain access to the internet.

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