UK Edition
Apple pulls hundreds of apps from China after requests from Beijing
Apple removed hundreds of apps at the Chinese government’s request last year as Beijing ratcheted up its online censorship efforts.
The US tech giant revealed that it had deleted 517 apps from China’s App Store, the portal for downloading iPhone and iPad software, in the second half of last year after receiving notices from the government.
China has tightened its control of the internet in recent years, and most major internet services used in the West are banned in the country.
Apple, unlike Google and Facebook, has continued to operate in China, and abided by local laws that require the company to store user data on Chinese servers.
The company’s biannual transparency report, released on Wednesday, included figures on app removals for the first time. Apple said the “vast majority” of the apps removed in China were related to gambling or pornography.
In the past, it has been forced to remove Western news apps and virtual private network (VPN) services, which allow users to skirt web restrictions.
Apple said China had made 56 takedown requests involving 626 apps, and that it had challenged two of the requests, meaning it successfully kept 109 of the apps online.
Beijing’s monitoring of the App Store was far more heavy handed than in other countries. The 517 app removals in China compared to just 117 in the rest of the world combined.
The report also revealed a jump in Chinese government requests for information about people’s devices, which can include who owns them and what purchases have been made with it. The government requested data on 137,595 Apple devices in the second half of last year, up from 30,764 in the preceding six months, although Apple said this was largely down to tax fraud investigations.
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has said that countries decide their own laws but that he hopes China will relax its censorship in time.
Google recently said it had frozen work on a search engine designed to comply with Chinese censors, after protests from employees, shareholders and human rights organisations.
Yesterday it emerged that major electronics manufacturers including Dell, Amazon and Microsoft are planning to move up to 40pc of their production capacity outside of China to escape US tariffs.
Reports said that the companies are preparing to join a manufacturing exodus that could also include Apple and Google if the trade situation does not improve.