Apple shuts down its News app in China
Apple has reportedly disabled its news app in China as it battles with the country’s strict online censorship rules governing media and freedom of expression.
The app, which is currently only available to download in the US, is affected when users try to access news from within the country. Customers cannot download the app from China’s Apple App store however those who already have it on their phones have reported problems when trying to access it in China.
The top of the Apple News feed normally displays a list of articles which are generated by users’ preferred media outlets. However China’s notorious online censorship means users are greeted with an error message saying “Can’t refresh right now. News isn’t supported in your current region.”
Apple has yet to comment on the issue however given that China now represents its second-largest source of revenue after the US it may be cautious of jeopardising a relationship within a key market that generated sales of more than $13 billion in the third quarter.
Larry Salibra, an entrepreneur who founded Pay4Bugs, summed up Apple’s approach as “very disconcerting”. In a Reddit post, Salibra said Apple was “censoring news content that I downloaded and stored on my device purchased in the USA, before I even enter China just because my phone happens to connect to a Chinese signal floating over the border”.
He added that “on device censorship is much different than having your server blocked by the Great Firewall or not enabling a feature for customers with certain country iTunes account,” his post continued. “That Apple has little choice doesn’t make it any less creepy or outrageous.”
In China companies are responsible for censoring their content to ensure they are in keeping with Beijing’s rules but Apple appears to have attempted to avoid the problem completely by disabling the service.