Apple said it removed Meta-owned apps WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China on Friday following government orders, potentially escalating the tech war between the U.S. and China.
The iPhone maker said China’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration, ordered the removal of WhatsApp and Threads from its app store due to national security concerns. Apple said it complied because “we have an obligation to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even if we disagree.”
A Meta spokesperson directed requests for comment to Apple. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on Apple’s removal of the apps.
A person briefed on the situation said the Chinese government found content on WhatsApp and threads about China’s President Xi Jinping that was inflammatory and violated the country’s cybersecurity laws. The details of the contents are unclear, the person said.
Several other global messaging apps were also removed from Apple’s App Store in China on Friday, including US-based Signal and Dubai-based Telegram, according to Appfigures, a market research firm that analyzes the digital economy. Signal did not immediately have a comment and Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.
The actions brought Apple and Meta into an intensifying technology dispute between the United States and China. In the US, the House of Representatives was preparing to vote this weekend on a bill that would force Chinese internet company ByteDance to sell its popular video app TikTok or have it banned in the US. US lawmakers have said TikTok poses a threat to national security because of its ties to China. Chinese officials have condemned the move to force a TikTok sale.
The White House has also recently worked to limit Beijing’s access to advanced technologies that could be used in war and expand restrictions on U.S. dollars used to finance the development of such technologies within Chinese borders. Beijing responded by banning memory chips from US chipmaker Micron and curbing sales from other American chipmakers.
China has long blocked American websites like Facebook and Instagram using a sophisticated system called the Great Firewall. While WhatsApp, one of the world’s most popular messaging services, and Threads, an X-like digital conversation app, were allowed in app stores, they were not widely used in China. The apps have been dwarfed by Chinese apps such as WeChat, owned by Chinese internet company Tencent.
Still, Chinese users were able to download and use WhatsApp using a virtual private network, or VPN, which is used to establish secure web connections and view banned content in China.
According to Appfigures, WhatsApp has been downloaded 15 million times on iPhones in China since 2017, while Threads has been downloaded 470,000 times.
Apple has been more vulnerable than most companies to rising tensions between the US and China. It became one of the world’s most valuable publicly traded companies by drawing on China’s vast labor and manufacturing power to make its iPhones and then selling the devices to the country’s growing middle class. China now accounts for about a fifth of Apple’s annual sales, more than $68 billion last year.
For years, Apple has bowed to Beijing’s demands to block a range of apps, including newspapers, VPNs and encrypted messaging services. A data center has also been built in the country to store Chinese citizens’ iCloud information, including personal contacts, photos and emails.
As US-China relations deteriorated, Apple began diversifying its supply chain and began assembling iPhones, AirPods and Apple Watches in India and Vietnam.
Apple CEO Tim Cook was in Asia this week, visiting suppliers in Vietnam and speaking with the Indonesian president about building a manufacturing facility there.
For Meta, the impact is likely to be less direct, as many of its apps were already banned in China. Still, Meta makes money from Chinese companies like Temu and Shein that pay to place ads on Instagram and Facebook.
Meta and Apple have long had a difficult corporate relationship. Apple has introduced stricter limits on the type of tracking companies can perform on its devices, significantly limiting Meta’s ability to gain insight into user behavior for its digital advertising business. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has publicly railed against what he sees as Apple’s overly restrictive privacy policies.
In the United States, moves against TikTok have gained momentum in recent days, with House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiling a measure to force ByteDance to sell the app, along with other bills on development aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
House members are expected to vote on the legislative package on Saturday. If the package passes, the measures will be sent to the Senate as a single bill, which could soon vote. President Biden has said he would sign the TikTok law into law if it reaches his desk.
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2024-04-19 10:57:49
www.nytimes.com
