Apple has removed an app that allowed protesters in Hong Kong to track police just one day after Chinese state media strongly criticized the tracker. Apple said it was removing HKmap.live from its App Store a few days after approving it because authorities in Hong Kong said protesters were using it to attack police. “The app displays police locations and we have verified with the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau that the app has been used to target and ambush police, threaten public safety, and criminals have used it to victimize residents in areas where they know there is no law enforcement,” Apple said in a statement late Wednesday. “This app violates our guidelines and local laws.” People’s Daily, a Chinese Communist Party newspaper, published an editorial that claimed Apple was aiding “rioters” in Hong Kong. “Letting poisonous software have its way is a betrayal of the Chinese people’s feelings,” said the article, which was written under the pseudonym “Calming the Waves,” according to TheNew York Times.
