On Wednesday, Apple, a leading technology giant, brought down an app that protestors in Hong Kong used to track the police whereabouts and movements. Apple removed the application from its app store, noting that it violated the laws and rules of use. The tech app was being used by protestors to ambush the law enforcers. The tech giant was under intense criticism by the China government over the application. The Chinese Communist Party had termed the application as poisonous and toxic. The Party’s official newspaper decried what it noted as Apple’s way of assisting Hong Kong’s protestors to cause chaos.
Last week, Apple had approved that the HKmap.Live app was resourceful. This was after the tech organization rejected the application earlier this month. The program sources out the entire crowded locations of both protestors and police. Apple announced that it had kicked off a thorough investigation on the app and the allegations made against it. This was after many Hong Kong customers contacted the tech organization regarding the app. Apple later realized that the technology had endangered and put the lives and operations of the police and the residents at risk.
According to a statement released by the tech giant, it noted that the application displayed police locations. The company also verified with the Hong Kong Crime Bureau that the technology was being used to ambush and target the police. This posed a significant threat to public safety. Criminals had seen this as a platform to victimize residents in the areas that law enforcement had not yet visited. The tech company never commented beyond the released statement. Apple also brought down BackupHK, a different application that acted as a mirror of the main HKlive.Map app. After this incidence, the Hong Kong police never had any immediate comment.
On a Twitter account that was believed to be owned by the application developers, they disagreed with the decision taken by Apple. They went on to say that there was no substantial evidence that supported that HKlive.map was involved in the ambushes experienced by Hong Kong Law Enforcement.
The app developers tweeted that the application consolidated information from public posts on various social networks. They went on to note that moderators would erase any content that had any form of criminal activity. The moderators would also ban any repeated attempt to post any violent content in the application. HKlive.map developers said that according to a majority of reviews, the application had improved public safety and not vice-versa
