Apple Removes WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China
Apple has delisted WhatsApp and Threads owned by Meta Inc. from its Chinese App Store in line with an order from Beijing over national security concerns.
The mobile tech giant has also delisted other messaging applications, including Telegram and Signal, to comply with the regulations of the Cyberspace Administration of China, which cited loopholes in the country's internet firewall.
This move by Apple comes on the back of a cleanup program that was initiated by China in 2023 to remove all defunct or unregistered apps from domestic iOS and Android stores, including local ones. Apple has confirmed that it is obligated to abide by the laws in the countries where it operates, even when it disagrees.
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The Apple App Store is estimated to have around 222 million active Chinese users each month, based on market share in China, according to data obtained from Business of Apps. With the new development, this figure could drop drastically as the Chinese government wants to limit its citizens to local Chinese apps, thereby cutting them off from the rest of the world.
One can conclude from recent events this year that this move by China is politically motivated as all signals point to the fact that it wants to get revenge on the U.S. for making plans to ban TikTok, a social media platform owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.