Can Apple & Google really prevent VPN users from accessing illegal content?

Saw this in an article in the Wall Street Journal regarding the TikTok ban:

VPNs, or virtual private networks, are a potential option for accessing TikTok’s app, since they can make it seem as if a user is in a country where TikTok isn’t banned. But Apple and Google have strategies in place to prevent VPN users from accessing illegal content such as unlawful gambling apps.

Is this true? If so, how?

By removing the said apps from Play Store & App Store? Not much beyond this, I don’t think; and afaict, no compromises in the OS (they could, if they wanted to, like Amazon does on Kindles), if that’s what you’re asking.

Both those companies have done so in the past in response to government requests.

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If they do, which is unlikely at the moment, then Android but even better Graphene is the best course of action right, since we can install APKs directly and since there are other app stores we can use?

Would it be possible for them to use some sort of app integrity verification or certificate pinning to accomplish this?

Not just on Graphene / Lineage / Calyx, but one could sideload apps (or use 3p stores) on most OEM ROMs.

From Android 13+ though, sideloaded apps are “restricted” from accessing certain APIs; notably, notifications and accessibility, since those are abused a bunch by spyware apps, which are usually sideloaded to bypass Play Protect (ref / mirror).

Google can’t impose pinning or integrity on apps, I don’t think? Apps themselves have to use both those features, if that makes sense.

Users can choose to remove those restrictions.

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The most likely approach for Google and Apple to take is to remove an app (in this case, TikTok) from the store for users in a certain country. That country being the one tied to their account, not their location per their IP address. Most users need their account to correspond to their actual country to download country-specific apps (e.g. banking apps), so this measure is fairly effective.

Theoretically speaking, of course, the developers of the operating systems have the technical capability to forcibly remove apps. Presumably, the easiest way to do this would be to abuse Play Protect / Apple’s corresponding system to uninstall banned apps despite not containing actual malware, etc. As far as I am aware, these systems do not currently forcibly remove apps, but there is no reason they couldn’t be leveraged to do so.

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These platforms don’t even have to remove TikTok from their stores. American creators can’t get paid anymore. In fact, TikTok won’t generate revenue from American advertisers anymore to pay anyone either.

The hammer cast by the US Govt is way bigger than any Google / Apple can wield.

It seems like a lot of creators are moving to RedNote. Which isn’t any better than TikTok.

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The users want short form content more than they want privacy. If it wasn’t RedNote, they’d watch Instagram reels. Most social media users use their platform(s) voluntarily and may even pay to use it (blue checks, etc)