Tired by the local press, Apple has removed up to 25,000 applications of gambling on its Chinese store. A situation far from new for the American company.
After India , it is now in China that Apple is forced to adapt to local regulations. According to a Chinese CCTV media outlet , the Cupertino company has removed more than 25,000 applications from the Chinese App Store. All had one thing in common: the mention ” gambling” in their presentation. An illegal practice in China. In a statement sent to Bloomberg , the US giant says ” multiply efforts to clean the App Store of their presence . “
VPNs and the New York Times already erased from the App Store
This approach was of course not initiated by the goodwill of Apple. It is CCTV, a Chinese public channel, so close to the government, which launched the hostilities on July 31 last. In a paper published on its website, the media denounced Apple’s laxity regarding gambling. The response from the company was not long since a few days later, on August 9, more than 4,000 applications disappeared from the App Store. ” Being illegal in China, gambling applications are prohibited on our platform , explains the release of Apple.We have already removed the access of many developers wishing to distribute this kind of application on the App Store .
This is not the first time that Apple is forced to comply with Chinese censorship. A year ago already, in July 2017, the Silicon Valley company erased the VPN applications from its store. Last January, it was the turn of the US media New York Timesapplication to disappear, following a series of articles on a Chinese politician.
After the ZTE affair , it is in a very tense context that Apple has accepted the Chinese regulations. According to Bloomberg , Apple does not wish to aggravate the situation and would be afraid of the risks of boycotting American products.