Apple said to have disabled News app in China

The Apple News app, announced by the company last June, is now only available to users in the USA, although there are plans to roll it out to several other markets.

As for why, it’s thought that the move is basically Apple’s way to avoid any kind of self-censorship that the Chinese government would otherwise insist on. In Apple’s case, that would mean it would probably have to develop a censorship system – most Chinese companies use a combination of automated software and employees – to eliminate sensitive articles from feeds. Appleinsider.com reported Apple is actively censoring its News app shipped as part of iOS 9 when users inside China try to access the app. “News isn’t supported in your current region.'” Apple declined to comment.

As Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said this past summer, “I think China is a fantastic geography with an incredible, unprecedented level of opportunity”. Users who have already downloaded the app can still see news when they travel overseas, with the exception of one country: China.

How do you actually feel if you do in fact couldn’t study the news broadcast from the Apple appliance?

Tech entrepreneur Larry Salibra pointed out the issue in a blog post a few days ago, stating how in Hong Kong just connecting to a mobile signal from the mainland was enough to disable the app’s functionality.

Also, in order to impede the upcoming wave of discontent from Apple users, Apple released a statement yesterday in which they justify the deactivation of their application in China. “That Apple has little choice doesn’t make it any less creepy or outrageous”, another wrote.

Given that China is home to more than 1.3 billion people, and is among the fastest growing economic regions in the world, the so-called Middle Kingdom is a huge market for Apple, so they’re likely not looking to risk their bottom line. Google famously ran afoul of the Chinese government in 2010 after sustaining a state-sponsored hacking attack on its Windows computers and was effectively kicked out of the country. Apple certainly doesn’t want to hurt its cash cow over censorship.

I don’t expect this to change soon.