Making internet freedom mountains out of Chinese molehills

[Commentary] On Jan 4, it was announced that the New York Times app for Apple devices would no longer be available in China. This is notable, because the Times app bypassed Chinese internet censorship, and so Apple is meaningfully reducing Chinese access to unfiltered media.

According to Apple, this action was in response to a declaration by the Chinese government that the app violates local law. The story has been widely reported and has caused some concern about the precedent being set. Should US companies aid in Chinese censorship? This question in turn reflects a broader unease about the way that multinational technology companies enable government misbehavior.

[Ariel Rabkin was a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University from 2012 to 2014.]