Japan: Apple Must Lift Browser Engine Ban by December - Open Web Advocacy

Privacy and Security News
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This is indeed a very good move, I really wish this could expand in the EU and US though!
But hey I guess japan users can now have the different engines!

Readers may recall that Japan recently passed the Smartphone Act, officially the Bill on the Promotion of Competition for Specified Software Used in Smartphones. Among its most important reforms is a direct prohibition on Apple’s long-standing ban on third-party browser engines on iOS.

This ban has functioned as an effective ban on browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera, Brave & Vivaldi, by forcing them to use Apple’s WebKit engine, which they cannot modify or control. This results in no effective browser competition on iOS, and web apps being deprived of the APIs and performance they need to compete with native apps.

The legislation was based on the Final Report by Japan’s Headquarters for Digital Market Competition, a report Open Web Advocacy consulted on. Our submission is available here.

Last week, Japan published the Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA) Guidelines. These subordinate rules clarify how the Act will be interpreted and enforced. Here’s what they mean for browser competition.

-Source

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I seriously wish the US got a similar law.

Of course, we didn’t.

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Massive news!! Though I’m very curious who is actually going to pursue a non-webkit browser engine unless more countries follow suit. But hopefully that’s what we see next, more countries :slight_smile:

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Every day we get closer to IOS being as powerful as Android 1

You know they’re going to make this Japanese-only and instead of doing it normally will present the user with “confusion popups“, which are a “nightmare for security“. And also make it require approval:

Web Browser Engine Entitlement

With the Web Browser Engine Entitlement, you can use an alternative browser engine in your browser app.

I wonder if it’s possible to somehow trick Apple into making this global with “Apple must allow Japanese citizens to use IOS like human beings“ and “Apple must not collect location information of Japanese citizens“

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Any such wondering is going to be futile.

I’m not disparaging what you’re saying/thinking/wishing here but pragmatically, Apple or any big tech company will only maliciously comply. I don’t have any hopes for this to become a global thing unless having such fragmentation is making it more expensive for them in any insignificant way.

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And The Middle East Has To Do Something About This Whole Browser Engine Problem

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Yes, just likeMalaysia, Paraguay, Swaziland, Armenia, … I could go on. How about just every country?

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Didn’t really expect it from Japan of all places, seeing as IE is still used for banking from what I can remember. Welcome change

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We Could Have Using Firefox To Its Fullest Potential On IOS But Unfortunately Even Android Users Have Gone sick of trying a non chromium based engine