Arab Press

بالشعب و للشعب
Wednesday, Oct 01, 2025

Apple Angers China by Approving Cop-Tracking Map App for Hong Kong

Apple Angers China by Approving Cop-Tracking Map App for Hong Kong

Apple has joined the list of American companies under fire in China over the Hong Kong protests. The iPhone maker triggered an angry response from Chinese state media and consumers when it approved a map app that allows protesters in Hong Kong to track police movements.

Apple is among the most recognizable U.S. brands in China, and it relies heavily on the country for manufacturing and sales. The Cupertino, Calif., giant was lambasted for approving the app and accused of showing support for the protesters.

Critics say HKmap.live - which denotes the presence of police with an emoji of a dog, a widely used insult for police officers during the protests—will help protesters commit crimes and evade arrest.

The People’s Daily, a Communist Party mouthpiece, condemned Apple, writing late Tuesday that “such toxic software” betrays the feelings of Chinese people. “Apple, like other companies, should be able to distinguish between right and wrong and understand that its market would only be more promising and substantial if China and Hong Kong are doing well,” the commentary said.

HKmap.live is available in Hong Kong, the U.S. and elsewhere through Apple’s App Store as well as in Google Play Store. It isn’t clear whether Google is also in the Chinese government’s sights. The map app isn’t available in mainland China, where Apple has deleted hundreds of apps in recent years to meet local laws.

Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment. Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply news through Apple services.

Apple is only the latest American business to be hit by controversy for inflaming Chinese sensitivities. Many of the recent incidents have centered on the four-month-long antigovernment protests in Hong Kong, which is a Chinese special administrative region. Protesters have taken aim at Beijing’s rule and in many cases targeted branches of mainland Chinese businesses.

The National Basketball Association is in a tense standoff with Beijing after a Houston Rockets executive tweeted in support of the protests. This week, New York-based luxury brand Tiffany & Co. deleted a tweet that some Chinese users said supported the protests.

Apple hasn’t drawn the level of scorn enveloping the NBA in China. Still, Duncan Clark, a Beijing-based technology consultant, said the challenge Apple now faces is “how to keep Chinese consumers onside along with the Chinese government, but not fall foul of Western consumers and governments, especially the Trump administration.”

Apple was criticized in 2017 in the U.S. after disclosing that it had removed roughly 700 virtual private network, or VPN, apps from its Chinese App Store by the fall of that year. VPN apps allow users to circumvent China’s so-called Great Firewall to access blocked websites. Apple said it was simply following Chinese laws and regulations.

HKmap.live is a crowd-sourcing app that relies on contributors who submit live feeds to its database. The app uses different emojis to give live updates and traffic information about locations across the city, especially during protests.

Some icons are self-explanatory, like emojis for ambulances or police wagons. Others require a more nuanced understanding of the protests. For example, water drops are used to symbolize the location of water cannons used as a crowd-control tool by police. A dinosaur emoji warns of the elite snatch-and-arrest police squads known as “raptors.”

According to the developer’s Twitter account, @hkmaplive, Apple early this month kept the app from going on sale on its App Store, saying that it could be used to evade law enforcement. Days later, on Oct. 4, the developer said the app had been approved by Apple.

“I don’t think the application is illegal in Hong Kong,” the app’s developer said in an interview. The developer, who declined to give his or her name, citing safety concerns, said the app merely consolidates information that is publicly available, for example, on Telegram, an app that protesters have been using to communicate.

Little is known about the developer, who is soliciting donations via bitcoin, the anonymized cryptocurrency, to support the app and other projects.

The Chinese Communist Party’s Youth League on Tuesday drew attention to HKmap.live when it criticized the app, and Apple, on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service. The post solicited criticisms from Chinese internet users. “Support the Chinese brands and time to take Apple off the shelf,” one user said.

On Weibo, a hashtag that accuses Apple of helping publicize the movements of Hong Kong police had been viewed about 14 million times by Wednesday afternoon.

Traditionally focused on hardware, Apple in recent years has increasingly set its sights on expanding services such as its App Store business, which involves dealing with content.

At Apple, apps made by third parties are generally vetted by hundreds of the company’s reviewers based in the U.S., Ireland and China. They evaluate apps to make sure they abide by the company’s guidelines and are complete and compatible.

Developers of apps that are rejected can appeal to a review board, which ultimately reports to Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller, who oversees the App Store.

Apple’s business model has been scrutinized in the context of the U.S.-China trade war that began last year. A reliance on the Chinese market leaves Apple exposed should Beijing decide to retaliate against the U.S. by fanning nationalistic sentiments among consumers to squeeze sales of American goods.

Apple is already grappling with sliding sales in China, where domestic rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co. sell phones with similar features to the iPhone at lower prices.


Newsletter

Related Articles

Arab Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Trump Backs Putin’s Land-for-Peace Proposal Amid Kyiv’s Rejection
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
United States Sells Luxury Yacht Amadea, Valued at Approximately $325 Million, in First Sale of a Seized Russian Yacht Since the Invasion of Ukraine
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
×