China Crackdown on Apple Store Hits Holy Book Apps, Audible

                             

Amazon’s audiobook service Audible and telephone apps for studying the holy books of Islam and Christianity have disappeared from the Apple retailer in mainland China, the most recent examples of the affect of the nation’s tightened guidelines for web corporations. Audible mentioned Friday that it eliminated its app from the Apple retailer in mainland China final month “on account of allow necessities.”

The makers of apps for reading and listening to the Quran and Bible say their apps have also been removed from Apple’s China-based store at the government’s request. Apple didn’t return requests for comment Friday. A spokesperson for China’s embassy in the US declined to speak about specific app removals but said the Chinese government has “always encouraged and supported the development of the Internet.”

 “At the identical time, the event of the Internet in China should additionally adjust to Chinese legal guidelines and rules,” said an emailed statement from Liu Pengyu. China’s government has long sought to control the flow of information online, but is increasingly stepping up its enforcement of the internet sector in other ways, making it hard to determine the causes for a particular app’s removal. Chinese regulators this year have sought to strengthen data privacy restrictions and limit how much time children can play video games. They are also exerting greater control over the algorithms used by tech firms to personalise and recommend content.

The popular US language-learning app Duolingo disappeared from Apple’s China store over the summer, as have many video game apps. What appears to link Audible with the religious apps is that all were recently notified of permit requirements for published content. Pakistan Data Management Services, which makes the Quran Majeed app, said it is awaiting more information from China’s internet authority about how it can be restored. The app has nearly 1 million users in China and about 40 million worldwide, said the Karachi-based company. Those who had already downloaded the app can still use it, said Hasan Shafiq Ahmed, the company’s head of growth and relationships.

“We are looking to figure out what documentation is needed to get approval from Chinese authorities so the app can be restored,” he mentioned in an e mail.

The maker of a Bible app mentioned it eliminated it from the Apple retailer in China after studying from Apple’s App Store evaluation course of that it wanted particular permission to distribute an app with “e-book or journal content material.” Olive Tree Bible Software, based in Spokane, Washington, said it’s now reviewing the requirements to obtain the necessary permit “with the hope that we can restore our app to China’s App Store and continue to distribute the Bible worldwide.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Apple’s actions, saying the corporate was enabling China’s non secular persecution of Muslims and others. 

“This resolution should be reversed,” said a statement from CAIR’s national deputy director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell. “If American corporations don’t grow a spine and stand up to China right now, they risk spending the next century subservient to the whims of a fascist superpower.” The removals had been first detected this week by watchdog web site AppleCensorship, which screens Apple’s app retailer to detect when apps have been blocked, particularly in China and different nations with authoritarian governments.

This week, Microsoft mentioned that it might shut down its primary LinkedIn service in China later this 12 months, citing a “considerably more difficult working setting and better compliance necessities in China.” Unlike LinkedIn, which has been offering a specialized Chinese service since 2014, Amazon-owned Audible said it does not have a dedicated service for customers in China.