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Skype disappears from Chinese app stores in latest web crackdown

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BEIJING: Microsoft Corp’s Skype has vanished from Apple Inc and Android smartphone app stores in China, becoming the latest victim in Beijing’s sweeping Internet clampdown.

The Internet phone and video service was no longer available on Apple’ iOS or on popular local Android stores such as Xiaomi Corp’s, though it still functioned as of yesterday.

The Public Security Ministry notified Apple that a number of voice-over-Internet-protocol apps didn’t comply with local law and the US company subsequent­ly removed them, a spokeswoma­n for the iPhone maker said.

Those apps, which enable voice calls among other things, remain in place elsewhere.

It’s unclear why Skype, which has operated for years in China despite making little headway against more popular services like WeChat, was targeted.

Under Xi Jinping, the Communist Party has tightened controls over online content and taken aim at messaging services in particular, requiring users to register their real names and threatenin­g action against people who disseminat­e content deemed to threaten social stability.

WhatsApp is periodical­ly blocked in China, while the social network of its owner Facebook Inc isn’t accessible. Twitter and Google are similarly barred.

Microsoft said in a statement that Skype’s removal was temporary and it was working to get it reinstated as soon as possible, without elaboratin­g.

The Cyberspace Administra­tion of China and Industry and Informatio­n Technology Ministry didn’t respond to a faxed request for comment on the move, which the New York Times first reported.

“Any instant messaging apps operating in China must follow the cybersecur­ity law, there’s no question about it,” said Zuo Xiaodong, vice-president of the China Informatio­n Security Research Institute, a government think-tank.

“It goes without saying whose regulation­s need to be followed if a company’s own rules contradict China’s law – as long as it wants to continue to operate in the Chinese mainland.”

While Skype’s removal triggered a flurry of online complaints, it’s unlikely to inconvenie­nce the vast majority of Chinese online users who’ve taken up more popular chat and calling services such as Tencent Holdings Ltd’s WeChat.

As of yesterday, rival messaging services from Signal to Telegram remained available for download.

China is in the throes of the biggest crack- down on freedom of expression and media in the Internet era.

Foreign companies complain of restrictio­ns that hamstring operations and favour homegrown players. Police are shutting businesses and arresting civilians on message groups as Beijing plugs more holes in its “Great Firewall” blockade of blackliste­d sites.

Xi has galvanised a nationwide machine in which corporatio­ns, cybercops and automated systems police content to preserve the party’s seven-decade rule.

As global giants from Alphabet Inc’s Google to Facebook Inc explore entry, they have to weigh the benefits of tapping the world’s biggest Internet market against the fallout from appearing to back a repressive regime.

Apple itself has come under fire, as critics accuse the world’s largest company of aiding and abetting censorship. — Bloomberg

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