Sources indicate that Apple has disabled its news application in China.
Sources in Hong Kong indicate that Apple has disabled its news application in China. According to a report from the New York Times, a person familiar with the situation reported that the shutdown is a result of the strict regulations Chinese government places on its media outlets.
Apple unveiled its news app in June, and has thus far only been available to users in the United States. It is currently in the testing phase in the U.K. and Australia, and customers who downloaded the app in the U.S. can still access it overseas. That is, everywhere except in China.
Users looking for news from Apple in China will receive the following message at the top of their feed: “Can’t refresh right now. News isn’t supported in your current region.” Apple has not issued a comment on the matter.
China makes up the second largest piece of Apple’s revenue behind the U.S. It sold more than $13 billion in the third quarter, and will need to continue to provide accessible content to Chinese users if it wants to keep this up.
According to Chinese officials, companies are responsible for censoring the content they provide in China. Apple would need to develop a censorship system that follows the rules and guidelines of Chinese media laws in order to legally distribute content in the country. While it works on this, Apple News will remain unavailable in China.
Daniel J. Brown
Daniel J. Brown (Editor-in-Chief) is a recently retired data analyst who gets a kick out of reading and writing the news. He enjoys good music, great food, and sports, with a slant towards Southern college football, basketball and professional baseball.