More than a half dozen VPN apps, including Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1, have been pulled from India’s Apple App Store and Google Play Store following intervention from government authorities, according to TechCrunch.
The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs issued removal orders for the apps, according to a document reviewed by TechCrunch and a disclosure made by Google to Lumen, Harvard University’s database that tracks government takedown requests globally.
Among the affected apps are Hide.me and PrivadoVPN. In communication to one of the affected developers, seen by TechCrunch, Apple cited a “demand” from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center, part of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which deemed the developer content to contravene Indian law.
This isn’t the first time Apple has removed VPN apps from its App Store. In 2017, the Chinese government forced the tech giant go remove VPN apps from the app store in China.
