Apple pulls WhatsApp, Threads from Chinese app store after Beijing order

Apple pulls WhatsApp, Threads from Chinese app store after Beijing order

Apple, said on Friday it had removed Meta Platforms’, WhatsApp and Threads from the App Store in China after being ordered to do so by the Chinese government, which cited national security concerns.

Telegram and Signal – two other foreign messaging apps – were also removed from the store on Friday, according to app tracking firms Qimai and AppMagic.

The removal of the four apps shows a growing intolerance on the part of China’s central government towards at least some foreign online messaging services that are beyond its control. It also marks less slack for Apple in China.

That said, other Meta apps including Facebook, Instagram and Messenger remain available for download, according to a Reuters review on Friday. Many other popular apps developed by Western companies including YouTube and X are also available.

Read: WhatsApp launches privacy feature to disable link previews

It’s unclear how WhatsApp or Threads might cause security concerns for Chinese authorities.

“The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of this app from the China storefront based on their national security concerns,” Apple said in an emailed statement.

“We are responsible for complying with the laws in the countries where we operate, even if we disagree,” the statement said.

Meta declined to comment and referred questions to Apple.

Apple did not respond to requests for comment about Signal and Telegram. Representatives for both companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

China’s Cyberspace Administration also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

None of the four apps is widely used in China – where Tencent’s WeChat is by far the dominant service.

These apps and many foreign apps are usually blocked on Chinese networks by the “Great Firewall” – the country’s widespread cyber-filtering system – and can only be used with virtual private networks or other proxy tools.

The four apps remain available in Hong Kong and Macau, two special administrative regions of China.

Some experts in China’s tech industry say the government’s orders on WhatsApp and Threads may be related to new rules last August that require all apps available in China to register with the government or risk being removed.

The deadline for companies to complete the registration is the end of March and the rules come into effect on April 1.

Apple has removed apps from its Chinese app store before.

In 2017, Apple removed The New York Times news app, saying it violated local regulations – a move that came amid increased news censorship in the world’s second-largest economy. It remains unavailable on Apple’s China App Store.

Last year, Apple pulled some apps like ChatGPT as Beijing worked on local regulations on generative artificial intelligence (AI) services.

The removal of WhatsApp and Threads from the China App Store was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.