Apple ordered to pull WhatsApp from China app store
Government also tells company to remove Threads
Apple said it pulled the Metaowned apps WhatsApp and Threads from its app store in China on Friday on government orders, potentially escalating the war over technology between the United States and China.
The iPhone maker said that China's internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration, ordered the removal of WhatsApp and Threads from its app store because of national security concerns. Apple said that it complied because “we are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree.”
A Meta spokesperson directed requests for comment to Apple.
A person briefed on the situation said the Chinese government had found content on WhatsApp and Threads about China's president, Xi Jinping, that was inflammatory and violated the country's cybersecurity laws. The specifics of what was in the content was unclear, the person said.
An Apple spokesperson denied that the Chinese government ordered the apps removed because of content on WhatsApp and Thread about Xi that was inflammatory.
Several other global messaging apps also had been removed from Apple's App Store in China on Friday, including Signal, which is based in the United States, and Telegram, which is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, according to Appfigures, a market research firm that analyzes the digital economy. Signal didn't immediately have a comment, and Telegram didn't respond to a request for comment.
The actions thrust Apple and Meta into an intensifying tussle over technology between the United States and China. In the United States, the House of Representatives was preparing to vote on a bill as soon as this weekend that would force Chinese internet company ByteDance to sell its popular video app TikTok or have it be banned in the United States. Chinese officials have condemned the push to force a TikTok sale.
China has long blocked American websites including Facebook and Instagram by using an elaborate system called the Great Firewall. While WhatsApp, one of the world's most popular messaging services, and Threads, an X-like app for digital conversation, were permitted in app stores, they were not used widely in China. The apps were dwarfed by Chinese ones such as WeChat, which is owned by Chinese internet company Tencent.
WhatsApp had been downloaded 15 million times on iPhones in China since 2017, while Threads had been downloaded 470,000 times, according to Appfigures.