Apple chief Tim Cook has defended the firm's decision to pull an app used by protesters in Hong Kong to track police, according to a leaked email.

The tech giant removed the mobile software, called HKmap.live, from the App Store yesterday after Beijing's mouthpiece newspaper accused it of 'facilitating illegal behaviour'.

Critics blasted the tech giant's move as putting its business interests in China above human rights.   




'This use put the app in violation of Hong Kong law. Similarly, widespread abuse clearly violates our App Store guidelines barring personal harm,' Tim Cook said in a leaked email





A protester wearing a Guy Fawkes mask uses her mobile phone during a demonstration in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Tech-savvy activists have been using software to organise rallies





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Hong Kong has been rocked by four months of increasingly violent protests, initially against a now-shelved extradition law. But the demonstrators' focus has now shifted to broader pro-democracy aims.

China is stepping up pressure on foreign companies deemed to be providing support to the movement which started in June. 

'Is Apple guiding Hong Kong thugs?' State-run People's Daily queried in a column on Wednesday. 

HKmap.live allowed for crowd-sourced reporting and mapping of police checkpoints, protest hotspots, and other information which, on its own, is 'benign' information, Mr Cook said.




HKmap.live allows users to report police locations, use of tear gas and other details that are added to a regularly updated map. An Android version and a web version are still available





Apple removed a HKmap.live mobile application from the App Store after criticism by Beijing





China has pressured international companies to take its stance on the Hong Kong unrest. The country's President Xi Jinping said no force could stop China's onward march this month

The comments were revealed in an email said to be sent by Mr Cook to Apple employees. A copy of the letter was uploaded to text storage site Pastebin and posted at tech news website The Verge.

'Over the past several days we received credible information, from the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau, as well as from users in Hong Kong, that the app was being used maliciously to target individual officers for violence and to victimize individuals and property where no police are present,' the email read.

'This use put the app in violation of Hong Kong law. Similarly, widespread abuse clearly violates our App Store guidelines barring personal harm.'

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

The makers of HKmap.live have countered that the app gathers information from users, social networks and news outlets to show where police have gathered, not where they aren't.




People attend a flash mob rally to show support for pro-democracy protesters in the Central district in Hong Kong on Friday. Beijing has labelled the city's activists 'rioters' and 'thugs'





Demonstrators hold signs reading 'Hong Kongers, resist' as they protest in Central on Friday







They have denied their app encouraged criminal activity, and lashed out at Apple's removal as 'censorship' and 'clearly a political decision to suppress freedom.' 

On Thursday the app was no longer available on Apple's Hong Kong App Store.

Another version is available for smartphones that use the Android operating system.

The programme also has a web-based version. 

Apple has also removed a news app from US media organisation Quartz due to its coverage on the protests as well as VPNs, software that helps Chinese web users access websites banned in the country, according to The Verge.  

The move came after Beijing complained about its 'illegal content', the report said. 

The app removals happened as the NBA was blasted by Beijing after one team manager showed support for the demonstrations and the league's boss backed employees' freedom of speech.   




NBA was blasted by Beijing after one team manager showed support for the demonstrations





Tiffany has removed a tweet showing Chinese model Sun Feifei covering one eye (pictured) after the country's consumers accused the jeweller of supporting the Hong Kong protesters 





Angry Chinese buyers believed it was a deliberate echo of the pose adopted by Hong Kong's pro-democracy demonstrators to denounce police violence. Students are seen covering their right eye in a show of solidarity after a protester was hit in the eye at a ally on August 22

Another Chinese state newspaper Global Times this week issued a stern warning to worldwide businesses, telling them to stay away from politics. 

International companies have flocked to take Beijing's stance on the protests. 

Fashion firms including Tiffany, Versace and Coach have also apologised for listing the semi-autonomous city separately from China on their products or PasteBinz websites.

Hong Kong's flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways fired multiple employees who had supported the demonstrations and warned its staff not to join 'illegal' protests.