Aug 26

Apple vs China

I guess you're tired hearing me mumbling over and over again about how much I like China for the fact they managed to prove that Communism works, so I won't say anything about that today. After all, I am not blind - world's 20 most polluted cities are from China, and human rights are still stuck somewhere a few ages behind the most Western countries. So...what about China, today? Did they succeed in showing us why is censorship good? The answer is negative, obviously, but Apple is finally getting into this, as we're going to see right away...

Just as a reminder, what happened was that a pro-Tibetan music album featuring various artists, such as Sting, Dave Matthews, Moby, and Alanis Morissette was recorded earlier this year, and released on the 5th of August on the iTunes Store. I know, this is not something out of ordinary, only that Chinese authorities have completely blocked access to the iTunes Store all over China, since it seems that athletes were downloading the album and listening to it in a silent act of support for Tibet.

An Apple official finally commented on this matter, as Apple China's spokeswoman Huang Yuna said they are aware of the problem, but no further information is available for now. "We've noticed the problem. It's true that users may fail to log in to iTunes store right now," this is all she said. Really? Here's some hot news for all of you...

A few hours ago, the iTunes Store started to work fine in China once again, with a little exception. Did you guess it? If not, here's the problem - the page of the "Songs for Tibet" album is still unavailable!

At last, here's a "bonus" from the Chinese authorities: the "Songs for Tibet" album pages on Amazon or YouTube care also unavailable... Congratulations, guys, you managed to show the entire world that Communism works...but remains the same plague that shackled freedom of speech of entire nations during the Cold War!