<story><title>Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)</title><url>https://reclaimthenet.org/apple-app-store-wechat-china</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>game_the0ry</author><text>When the west opened trade to China, policy experts assumed China would become more liberal like the west. Instead, the west is becoming more like China. [1, 2, 3]&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;arstechnica.com&amp;#x2F;gadgets&amp;#x2F;2023&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;googles-web-integrity-api-sounds-like-drm-for-the-web&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;arstechnica.com&amp;#x2F;gadgets&amp;#x2F;2023&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;googles-web-integrit...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;arstechnica.com&amp;#x2F;tech-policy&amp;#x2F;2023&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;ready-for-your-eye-scan-worldcoin-launches-but-not-quite-worldwide&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;arstechnica.com&amp;#x2F;tech-policy&amp;#x2F;2023&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;ready-for-your-e...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] (countless more examples, especially recently...)</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)</title><url>https://reclaimthenet.org/apple-app-store-wechat-china</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>joshstrange</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure this article has the slam dunk it thinks it does. Those aren&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;apps&amp;quot; they are at best &amp;quot;web apps&amp;quot;. They use a JS framework and some special markup from what I can tell. In this sense WeChat is more akin to a web browser than having multiple &amp;quot;apps&amp;quot; inside it.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Since these are “apps within an app”, many of these mini-programs are flouting the App Store rules since they were not downloaded from the App Store.&lt;p&gt;I mean Drafts has the ability to download actions (not sure if that is the right term) which are JS that run inside the app. I think this is fine and doesn&amp;#x27;t skirt any rules, I don&amp;#x27;t see why WeChat is all that different.&lt;p&gt;All that said, of course Apple is going to make exceptions for WeChat the same way it makes various concessions to other countries.</text></comment>