Telegram and Signal — two other foreign messaging apps — were also removed from the store on Friday, according to app tracking firms Qimai and AppMagic.
People walk past an Apple store in Shanghai, China September 13, 2023. Photo: REUTERS
The removal of these four applications shows that the Chinese government is increasingly determined to control services and information sources floating on social media.
Other Meta apps including Facebook, Instagram and Messenger are still available on the App Store in China. Many other popular apps developed by Western companies including YouTube and X are also available.
“The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the Chinese store based on national security concerns,” Apple said in a statement.
“We have an obligation to comply with the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree,” the statement said.
None of the four apps are widely used in China — where Tencent's WeChat is by far the dominant service.
These and many foreign apps are often blocked on Chinese networks by the "Great Firewall" - the country's extensive internet censorship system - and can only be accessed through a virtual private network (VPN).
These four apps are still available in Hong Kong and Macau, two special administrative regions of China.
Some experts in China's tech industry say the government's order on WhatsApp and Threads may be related to a new regulation last August that requires all apps available in China to register with authorities or risk being removed.
The deadline for companies to complete registration is the end of March and the regulations take effect from April 1.
Apple has previously removed other apps from its app store in China. In 2017, Apple removed The New York Times news app, saying it violated local regulations. The app is still not available on the Chinese App Store.
Last year, Apple also removed several ChatGPT-like apps as Beijing was developing local regulations on artificial intelligence (AI) services.
Mai Anh (according to Reuters)
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