Apple reportedly disables its news app in China to avoid breaking government censorship laws

[midian182]

After facing demands from the Chinese government to filter articles in its news app, Apple has decided to completely disable Apple News in the region, according to the New York Times.

Launched as part of the iOS 9 update, Apple News is currently only available to users in the US, though it is being tested in the UK and Australia. Phones registered in the US can still access Apple News while travelling abroad, but now it seems that China’s strict censorship laws have resulted in Apple’s decision to block the app in the country. Anyone in China who tries to use Apple News will be faced with an error message that reads: “Can’t refresh right now. News isn’t supported in your current region.”

Larry Salibra, founder and CEO of software testing platform Pay4Bugs, detailed his experience with Apple News while on a trip to China in a blog post titled ‘How Apple Censors News in China.’

They’re censoring news content that I downloaded and stored on my device purchased in the USA, before I even enter China just because my phone happens to connect to a Chinese signal floating over the border. On device censorship is much different than having your server blocked by the Great Firewall or not enabling a feature for customers with certain country iTunes account. That Apple has little choice doesn’t make it any less creepy or outrageous.

Any foreign company that does not abide to China’s strict censorship rules risks being blocked by its ‘great firewall,’ which is used to deny citizens access to many foreign websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The onus is on the companies to filter out any ‘sensitive’ content, and it seems that rather than risk something slipping through the net and incurring the Chinese government’s wrath, Apple has decided that to remove the app entirely. Google pulled its operations out of China in 2010 after the company said it was no longer comfortable with censoring its search results.

Apple News turns off when you roam into Mainland China. Disturbing. Not cool. pic.twitter.com/CYLUWGHE2H

— Larry Salibra (@larrysalibra) October 2, 2015

China is Apple’s second-largest source of revenue after the United States, with sales of more than $13 billion in the third quarter. The Cupertino-based company has yet to comment on the story.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/62389-apple-reportedly-disables-news-app-china-avoid-breaking.html

 

[davislane1]

Coming soon to a TPP country near you.

 

[yRaz]

Money is more important than freedom.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Money is more important than freedom.

It depends how you look at it. To me money IS freedom. Look at those with deep pockets and how they manage to get a slap on the wrist for serious crimes while those without never see the light of day again.

 

[yRaz]

It depends how you look at it. To me money IS freedom. Look at those with deep pockets and how they manage to get a slap on the wrist for serious crimes while those without never see the light of day again.

money is more important to apple than the freedom of hundreds of millions of people

 

[umbala]

It's unbelievable to me that in 2015 these money sucking corporations are still willing to bend over backwards for China. It proves that companies like Apple care about absolutely nothing, certainly not people, except money! It's disgusting just to see theses news stories.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

money is more important to apple than the freedom of hundreds of millions of people

Shhh... You know, I know that but there are those who would rather we didn't know and those (Apple) who think we are too stupid to know.

 

[Xtreme gamer]

Ahhhhhwwwwww.
Great ah firewallah of Chinah.

 

[gregzeng]

Apple is watching Google, etc as they try to handle Chinese psychology. Many people forget that Singapore is heavily censored, like the Islamic nations around it. Censorship is deeply ingrained IMHO into Chinese based cultures (Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, etc.).
As a fifth generation Australian Born Chinese (ABC), I wish that creativity, authority challenging, failure-acceptance might be part of the culture, just as it is in the Jewish culture. Unfortunately, seems my hopes are wrong.