Apple Inc removed social media services such as Meta Platforms Inc’s WhatsApp and Threads from its Chinese app store, complying with orders from Beijing to close more loopholes in the country’s longstanding Internet firewall.
It also removed messaging services Telegram and Signal, consultants tracking the space said.
The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the apps removed over national security concerns, said Apple, which has consistently complied with one of the world’s most rigid Internet censorship regimes.
Photo: AFP
The orders are part of a cleanup program Chinese regulators initiated last year, which would remove many defunct or unregistered apps from domestic iOS and Android stores, including local ones. In August last year, China asked all mobile app developers to register with the government by the end of last month or cease operations.
Beijing has barred the use of foreign messaging and social media platforms like WhatsApp for years, using what the industry calls the Great Firewall. That has helped apps like Tencent Holdings Ltd’s WeChat dominate domestic usage, though Chinese users can still use virtual private networks to view foreign media.
Less sensitive apps with more substantial Chinese businesses such as learning app Duolingo are expected to comply with the latest regulatory licensing regime to remain operational, AppInChina co-founder and CEO Rich Bishop said.
“It will mean that Chinese consumers are pretty much limited to just Chinese apps, with a small number of international ones,” said Bishop, whose consultancy has received dozens of inquiries from companies about how to stay compliant and publish software in China. “That’s quite a big change — so it will further cut off Chinese citizens from the rest of the world in a sense.”
The action against US tech services comes as it takes steps toward banning TikTok, the hit video app under Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd. US politicians have also cited national security concerns in their push to force the company to either sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or face a ban in the US.
“We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree. The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns,” Apple said in a statement. “These apps remain available for download on all other storefronts where they appear.”
The app registration process kicked off last year in what Beijing painted as a bid to counter telephone scams and fraud.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that it would carry out supervision work on those filings from April to June and take action against unregistered apps, adding that developers would also be required to set up and improve mechanisms to handle “illegal information.”
The move was regarded as another step by Beijing to tighten controls across its cyberspace, forcing Internet companies to scrub information considered politically sensitive. Beyond apps, Web sites and large language artificial intelligence models have also been subject to greater content curbs.
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