(Beijing) Apple has removed WhatsApp and Threads from its application store in China at the request of the authorities, the Bloomberg agency reported on Friday, citing the American group Meta, owner of the two targeted programs.
China closely monitors its media and internet, subject to strict regulation and censorship of content that portrays state policies in a bad light or is likely to create unrest.
Many sites (Google, YouTube, etc.), applications and foreign social networks (X, Instagram, Facebook, etc.) are therefore inaccessible without IT tools such as virtual private networks (VPN) to circumvent the blocks.
“The Chinese Cyberspace Administration (CAC) has ordered the removal of these applications due to national security concerns,” Apple said in a statement, cited by the financial information agency Bloomberg.
“We are required to respect the laws of the countries in which we operate, even if we do not agree,” Apple said in a statement, according to Bloomberg.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.
WhatsApp is a popular instant messaging application, while the social network Threads is a competitor to X (formerly Twitter).
Both belong to the American group Meta, which referred AFP to Apple for comment.
When contacted by AFP, neither the Chinese internet regulator (CAC) nor the Ministry of Industry and Technology, which also supervises the internet in China, responded immediately.
On Friday, WhatsApp and Threads were unavailable on the Chinese version of the App Store, Apple’s virtual store where applications are downloaded, according to AFP findings.
Secure messaging apps Signal and Telegram were also unavailable.
AFP did not immediately receive a response to a request for comment sent to Signal and Telegram.
However, all of these applications can still be downloaded from App Stores located outside mainland China.
WhatsApp is largely supplanted in China by WeChat (messaging, online payment, social network, purchases and reservations).
The application, present on almost all phones in the country, serves as a means of payment for hundreds of millions of Chinese every day.
As for Threads, which allows text, photo and video content to be published publicly and for its subscribers, it has had an equivalent since 2009: Weibo.
Apple products, from the iPhone to the iPad, are immensely popular in China, one of the American group’s main markets outside the United States.
The Apple brand has always refrained from taking a position on sensitive subjects or offending Chinese power. Its CEO has been received several times by senior officials, such as a head of state.