This sets a dangerous precedent going forward for the Android community which sideloads applications onto their phones, being that APKMirror is the largest mirror of APKs for Android phones. It’s also possible for them to add more apps to be included under this bill, and possible for another bill to be passed which may act as an even more broad blanket to target specific groups of people (e.g. LGBTQ+, people of color), messaging applications that are truly secure (e.g. Signal), and so on.
Then of course there a very real possibility of our president forcing the integration of software updates into both Android (and possibly even iOS smartphones) that can forcibly remove applications for the “sake of national security”.
What is everybody’s thoughts on this? Does anybody feel that this will grow to become a greater issue to the Android community over the next 4 years, or is this a non-issue?
If the site is american, they have to comply and they’re going to protect themselves, end-of. It’s either that or the risk of getting shut-down for illegal distribution.
Just grab the apk from another site out of the U.S. if you want it that badly.
A) They legally have to in order to comply with the law if their servers are in the US. Apk mirror is an app store just like google play.
B) “Google play protect” already has the ability to block installation of apps, including side-loaded apps, if it wants. For most users this is a good thing since it prevents malware but yes it could be abused.
There’s no “dangerous precedent for sideloading”. APKMirror is a file host. They have no obligation to host any content that they don’t wish to host. You are not blocked from sideloading apps that you acquire; you’re just not going to be acquiring these specific apps from this specific file host.
This is very interesting to me because while I get banning Tiktok the corporate entity from doing business in the US or with other US entities, would diplaying TikTok artifacts without being asked in ways that don’t directly benefit TikTok be a form of protected speech?
There was this famous case with GPG encryption. While it is illegal to export encryption tech as it is considered a munition, the court ruled that it’s perfectly fine to have the source code printed out on paper or even a t-shirt for 1st amendment reasons.
Does APKmirror have a t-shirt defense here with TikTok APKs?
use a vpn to bypass this measure i have seen this before with as different app in the past, they didnt remove thap app they are still distrbuting it but as long as your ip is reporting your in the US that blocked page will show up but switch it then it immediatley after refreshing the page it goes away
Wtf is the point of this? The ban isn´t in effect and any decision has been pushed for 75days. Tiktok is still running in america. What an absolute overreaction by APKMirror.
The bill was supposed to improve national security but ironically the bill actually makes it worse. Users will still find ways to get their TikTok fix for the foreseeable future, and they’ll risk downloading apks from unknown sources or from their friends, and that’s the haven that attackers need.
