Apple removes pro-democracy music from China’s Apple Music

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Music streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify are great — you pay a monthly fee and get access to virtually unlimited music — until songs suddenly disappear.

According to the Hong Kong Free Press, a song by Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung that contained lyrics referencing the tragic Tiananmen Square Massacre was removed from the China version (not to be confused with the Hong Kong or Taiwan versions) of Apple Music. 

The song’s removal is being called out as yet another move by the Chinese government to censor and block all references to the 1989 massacre, and people are rightfully upset with Apple for complying. 

The removed song, which translates to “The Path of Man,” was written by James Wong and had lyrics that directly referred to Tiananmen. 

The lyrics that reportedly triggered the Chinese censorship: “The youth are angry, heaven and earth are weeping… How did our land become a sea of blood? How did the path home become a path of no return?” 

The song reportedly disappeared from Apple Music over the weekend and also vanished from Tencent’s QQ Music streaming service, according to the Hong Kong Free Press. The song, however, is still available on Apple Music in other regions such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, North America.

Cheung’s song isn’t the only tune that’s gone missing in the Chinese version of Apple Music. Many songs by pro-democracy artists such as Hong Kong singers Anthony Wong and Denise Ho were also mysteriously removed from China’s Apple Music as well.

It’s unclear if the removed songs contained politically-charged lyrics that might have been flagged by the Chinese government. As the Hong Kong Free Press and Fast Company note, both artists were “supportive of pro-democracy protesters during the 2014 Umbrella Movement” and had performed a pro-democracy song called “Raise the Umbrella” during the protests.

The song removals are widely believed to be part of an aggressive censorship crackdown by the Chinese government as the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre nears on June 4.

While censorship is certainly a cost to doing business in China — companies either agree to censoring content or don’t operate at all — it’s particularly disappointing to see Apple, a pro freedom of speech company, continue to comply with Chinese censorship rules.

Most recently, mainland China iOS devices stopped displaying the Taiwanese flag emoji. And back in 2017, the company removed all VPN (virtual private network) apps from the Chinese App Store that allowed users to access websites and services (like Google and Facebook) that are blocked by the Chinese government. Last year, the company also moved Chinese users’ iCloud data from its own servers to that of a state-owned telecom company. 

All of these small changes reveals an Apple that’s increasingly willing to bend to the Chinese government. The big question is how far will Apple go to comply with Chinese censorship in order to continue doing business in China? And what kind of precedent will it set?