Apple has removed WhatsApp and Meta Threads, as well as Telegram and Signal, from its App Store in China.
The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the company to do so, citing national security concerns, Apple told Keynote USA in a report published on Friday (April 19).
“We are required to follow the laws of the countries where we operate, even when we disagree,” the technology company told the media outlet.
Other meta-apps remain available for download on the China App Store, including Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, according to the report. Many popular apps from other companies are also available, including YouTube and X.
The four apps that were removed from the store on Friday remain available in China’s two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau, according to the report.
Even before this move, the apps, and many other foreign apps, were blocked on Chinese networks by the country’s “Great Firewall” and can only be used with proxy tools, according to the report.
In December it was reported that China was expanding its ban on Apple iPhone use by government employees, with a growing number of government agencies and state-owned companies instructing workers to stop bringing foreign iPhones and other devices to work.
Plans for the ban were first reported in September, followed by news weeks later that China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had issued new rules that could prevent Apple from offering many foreign apps in its App. Store in the country.
Those new rules allow only apps from app operators that are registered with the government to be offered on the App Store.
The rules are not specifically aimed at Apple, but are part of China’s ongoing efforts to improve data security regulations, according to reports at the time. It aimed to close the loophole in the Great Firewall that allows Chinese iPhone users to download popular Western social media apps over virtual private networks (VPN).
At the time, those social media apps had been downloaded more than 170 million times over the past decade.
In September, mobile app stores operated by companies such as Tencent and Xiaomi also began blocking app publishers from submitting new apps if they had not made proper disclosures to authorities.
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