{"id":42892,"date":"2024-04-19T16:09:33","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T20:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=42892"},"modified":"2024-05-01T15:10:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T19:10:15","slug":"apple-removes-messaging-apps-from-chinese-app-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/04\/19\/apple-removes-messaging-apps-from-chinese-app-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Removes Messaging Apps From Chinese App Store"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2024\/04\/19\/apple-pulls-whatsapp-telegram-signal-threads-china\/\">MacRumors<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/04\/19\/tech\/china-apple-whatspp-threads-removal-hnk-intl\/index.html\">CNN<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=40085214\">Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2024\/04\/19\/apple-pulls-whatsapp-telegram-signal-threads-china\/\"><p>Apple on late Thursday into Friday removed the popular messaging and social media apps WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and Threads from its App Store in China at the request of the Chinese government, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/tech\/apple-removes-whatsapp-threads-from-china-app-store-on-government-orders-a0c02100\"><em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p><p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>In a statement shared with several media outlets, Apple said China&rsquo;s national internet regulator ordered the removal of the apps from the App Store in the country due to unspecified &ldquo;national security concerns.&rdquo; Apple said it is &ldquo;obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree.&rdquo;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p>However, it&rsquo;s Apple&rsquo;s choice to make distribution through the App Store a single point of failure.<\/p>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/02\/19\/ios-rcs-support-due-to-china\/\">iOS RCS Support Due to China<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/04\/apple-adopts-tighter-chinese-app-store-rules\/\">Apple Adopts Tighter Chinese App Store Rules<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/12\/apple-transparency-report-to-include-app-takedowns\/\">Apple Transparency Report to Include App Takedowns<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/31\/apple-pulls-vpn-apps-from-china-app-store\/\">Apple Pulls VPN Apps From China App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/05\/apple-removes-new-york-times-apps-from-chinese-app-store\/\">Apple Removes New York Times Apps From Chinese App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"apple-removes-messaging-apps-from-chinese-app-store-update-2024-04-24\">Update (2024-04-24): <a href=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/linked\/2024\/04\/19\/china-app-store-messaging-apps\">John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/linked\/2024\/04\/19\/china-app-store-messaging-apps\">\n<p>The answer re: sideloading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2020\/3\/25\/21193639\/huawei-mate-30-google-apps-services-appgallery-p40-preview\">is yes<\/a>, and both <a href=\"https:\/\/signal.org\/android\/apk\/\">Signal<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/android\">WhatsApp<\/a> offer direct downloads of their latest Android builds.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@kavehv\/112300254354404544\">Kaveh<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@kavehv\/112300254354404544\">\n<p>A small amount of Googling and it seems like sideloading the default way to get any Google apps in China since Android there isn't offered with the Play Store.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/patrickwardle\/status\/1781456391661867103\">Patrick Wardle<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/patrickwardle\/status\/1781456391661867103\">\n<p>Apple consciously (&amp; greedily) made the decision to be the arbiter\/gatekeeper of what can run on our iOS devices&#8230;which directly empowers governments to ban whatever apps they so choose[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"apple-removes-messaging-apps-from-chinese-app-store-update-2024-04-26\">Update (2024-04-26): See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2024\/04\/china-orders-apple-to-remove-meta-apps-after-inflammatory-posts-about-president\/\">Jon Brodkin<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MacRumors (CNN, Hacker News): Apple on late Thursday into Friday removed the popular messaging and social media apps WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and Threads from its App Store in China at the request of the Chinese government, The Wall Street Journal reported.[&#8230;]In a statement shared with several media outlets, Apple said China&rsquo;s national internet regulator ordered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2024-04-19T20:09:36Z","apple_news_api_id":"541c1b6a-66ed-4bda-a2d4-7a9694cad67b","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2024-05-01T19:10:19Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAg==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AVBwbambtS9qi1HqWlMrWew","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[91,2092,1547,31,2321,26,1672,1677,2422,1363],"class_list":["post-42892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-appstore","tag-app-store-takedown","tag-china","tag-ios","tag-ios-17","tag-iosapp","tag-signal","tag-telegram","tag-threads","tag-whatsapp"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42892"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43044,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42892\/revisions\/43044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}