this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2025
191 points (92.4% liked)

Technology

61081 readers
3079 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
191
APKMirror is no longer allowing downloads of TikTok, Lemon8, citing US Bill H.R.7521, setting a dangerous precedent for sideloading applications (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
40 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Currently, you are unable to view the APKMirror web page. Instead, you get the following message shown in the screenshot below.

Tiktok downloads are currently blocked in the United States due to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

The link in this statement leads to the following page, containing the bill that was passed:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521

This sets a dangerous precedent going forward for the Android community which sideloads applications onto their phones, being that APKMirror is the largest mirror of APKs for Android phones. It's also possible for them to add more apps to be included under this bill, and possible for another bill to be passed which may act as an even more broad blanket to target specific groups of people (e.g. LGBTQ+, people of color), messaging applications that are truly secure (e.g. Signal), and so on.

Then of course there a very real possibility of our president forcing the integration of software updates into both Android (and possibly even iOS smartphones) that can forcibly remove applications for the "sake of national security".

Blocked APKMirror links:

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/tiktok-pte-ltd/tik-tok/

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/tiktok-pte-ltd/lemon8/

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yes, this is just another policy that hinders the working class, the duopoly does like their police state.

Anyone have any thoughts on APKPure as an alternative?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

APKPure

It looks a little sketchy to me, I'm seeing mixed things on reddit about it.

An alternative application you can use to download Google Play apps is the Aurora Store (https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore), but I think it still obtains the files from Google Play.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Damn, Aurora is linked to google and you need to login to get apks, unlike F-Droid.

Aurora Store enables you to search and download apps from the official Google Play store. You can check app descriptions, screenshots, updates, reviews, and download the APK directly from Google Play to your device. To use Aurora Store, you need to have a Google Play account, and log in to your Google Play account when you first open and configure Aurora Store.

(Alternatively Aurora Store also allow you to login anonymously)

Unlike a traditional app store, Aurora Store does not own, license or distribute any apps. All the apps, app descriptions, screenshots and other content in Aurora Store are directly accessed, downloaded and/or displayed from Google Play.

Aurora Store works exactly like a door or a browser, allowing you to log in to your Google Play account and find the apps from Google Play.

Please note that Aurora Store does not have any approval, sponsorship or authorization from Google, Google Play, any apps downloaded through Aurora Store or any app developers; neither does Aurora Store have any affiliation, cooperation or connection with them.

F-Droid is cool, but limited with apks.

https://f-droid.org/

F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform. The client makes it easy to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago (2 children)

You can just login anonymously like the description you posted says. It works pretty well. It's how I download apps that aren't available on my local play store.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

login anonymously

What does this mean?

Is it similar to Chrome's "Incognito" mode?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

I'm not 100% sure but it doesn't require a login when you pick that option. Iirc it uses an account from a set of shared accounts so that it doesn't have any personally identifiable information.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

And how I get ones that it says are incompatible with my device for no apparent reason.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

F-Droid is great, but it's only for FOSS. So it won't host content like TikTok on it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

True, thanks for clarifying!