Sens. Cruz and Leahy Pen Letter Urging Apple CEO Tim Cook to Stop Enabling the Great Firewall

‘As long as the Great Firewall operates and is enabled by American technology companies, Internet freedom in China will remain at risk’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Thursday released a letter addressed to Apple CEO, Tim Cook regarding reports that Apple has removed Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications (apps) from the version of Apple’s App Store available to users in the People’s Republic of China.

“The threat that the Great Firewall poses to the freedom of the people of China is similar to the threat that the Berlin Wall imposed on the people of East Berlin for twenty-eight years,” the senators wrote. “As long as the Great Firewall operates and is enabled by American technology companies, Internet freedom in China will remain at risk.”

See the full text of letter here.