Apple has said that they have taken down several chat apps from China’s App Store. These apps include Telegram, WhatsApp, Threads, and Signal. It is said that Apple took these apps off of China’s App Store because they were unsafe.
This happened not long after the US banned TikTok and told China to either take it down from US app stores or sell it to a US owner for “security reasons.”
Joe Biden has asked ByteDance to decide within twelve months whether to sell or remove the app. If they don’t, he said he would pass a bill banning it. The case is still going on, and they want to pass it. The House could pass it as early as next week.
Apple said, “Even if we don’t agree with the laws, we have to follow them in the countries where we do business.” “The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront because they were dangerous to national security,” they said.
As of late, ties between the US and China have been tense. To avoid having to deal with China, the US has been looking at other countries to source goods instead. We’ve seen this happen when big U.S. companies meet with officials from other countries to talk about making deals for their goods.
WeChat is more famous in China than Threads or WhatsApp, but getting rid of these apps will make it much harder for people in China to talk to people in other countries.