Despite Apple not having any legal obligation to perform political censorship in Taiwan, it has done so anyway.
Apple’s application of filters for blocking content in China has seeped into how it operates in Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to Citizen Lab researchers. According to research performed by Citizen Lab, Apple’s application of filters, which pertain to derogatory, racist, sexual, and sometimes political content, censor more than what is required by a certain region’s moderation regulations. The research looked at keyword filtering rules used by Apple to moderate content across China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Canada, and the United States. While the six jurisdictions each have different regulatory and political environments that may affect Apple’s filtering decisions and content moderation policies, Citizen Lab found the censorship applied within China also bled into both Hong Kong and Taiwan, with much of this censorship exceeding Apple’s legal obligations. In Taiwan, Apple does not have any legal obligation to perform political censorship, but it still blocks engravings related to the Chinese Communist Party, China’s state organs, and political-religious groups like Falun Gong. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, Apple broadly censors references to collective action, such as the Umbrella Revolution, Hong Kong Democratic Movement, double universal suffrage, and freedom of the press. Although the National Security Law took effect in Hong Kong last year, which can potentially be used to mandate entities and individuals to remove political content, freedom of expression is legally protected in the region under the city’s Basic Law and the Bill of Rights.
