How App Stores Enable Corporate-Government Censorship and Threaten Free Speech

What happens when your device can only run what the government decides is OK? We are dangerously close to this kind of totalitarian control, thanks to a combination of government overreach and technocratic infrastructure choices.

While these devices are critical to most people's daily lives, what they can actually do is shaped by what apps are readily available.

A slim majority of Americans get their apps from just two companies: Apple and Google.

This centralized control creates a perfect environment for censorship: governments can pressure these few companies to remove apps or content they don't like.

When a handful of corporations control the digital public square, they become de facto arbiters of speech, and governments know exactly who to pressure.