Senators ask: did Apple push back hard enough against China in the removal of VPN apps?

CNBC reports that U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Patrick Leahy wrote to CEO Tim Cook about the removal of virtual private network (VPN) apps from the China App Store. The senators want to know if Apple pushed back hard enough against the Chinese government or if the company helped the government with its internet crackdown. 

This summer Apple removed all major VPN (Virtual Private Networks) apps from its local App store, which helps users overcome the country’s “Great Firewall.” Service providers slammed the move, calling it a “dangerous precedent.”

VPNs are the most common way to bypass China’s Great Firewall, which blocks multiple global websites, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, or news sites like The New York Times.