We all know that being a technology company in China is very complicated. The Asian country closely monitors everything published within its borders, and it’s common for American services to be banned without apparent reason and without prior notice, overnight.
Well, now Apple users in China will no longer be able to find and download WhatsApp and Threads from the App Store, according to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Tim Cook’s company said it removed the apps from the store to comply with orders it received from the Cyberspace Administration, China’s Internet regulator, “based on their national security concerns”.
Apple has not been able to oppose
Apple explained to the media that it is “obliged to comply with the laws of the countries in which it operates, even when it disagrees”.
The Great Firewall of China blocks many non-national applications and technologies in the country, forcing citizens to use a VPN if they want to access any of them. Facebook and Instagram are two of those applications, but WhatsApp and Threads could be downloaded until now.
The Chinese regulator’s order comes just before the Senate votes on a bill that could lead to the ban of TikTok in the United States. The reasoning of the Cybersecurity Administration – that the applications represent a national security problem – even coincides with the argument of US lawmakers to block TikTok in the country.
In the current version of the bill, ByteDance will have one year to divest from TikTok or else the short video sharing platform will be banned from app stores.
