Apple News Blocked In China

Has another web service fallen victim to the Chinese censorship policies?

Apple news has been blocked in China, and the cause is still uncertain. Either apple has decided to turn off its services in its second largest market (with $13 billion in sales last quarter) — mainland China — or this app has fallen victim to China’s censorship policies. Apple has not made a comment yet, but chances are that the latter is the cause. None of the media published on the application can be viewed in the world’s most densely populated country. Anyone attempting to use the app gets a prompt that reads, "Can't refresh right now. News isn't supported in your current region."

The app block is an extensive one; even the articles you had saved previously become inaccessible once you enter China. Although the app can be accessed in Hong Kong, which does not follow the rules set by Beijing. The app was released in the US in September as an iOS 9 feature.

This would not be the first web service that has suffered at the hands of Chinese media policies. China has an extensive censorship program, which promptly reacts to any story that they deem controversial. In 2012, Bloomberg News was blocked after they published a report about the enormous assets owned by the relatives of the current Chinese president Xi Jinping. Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal were censored after they published Apple news pieces that featured the facts about the finances of former Chinese Premier Wen Jaibao.

It becomes a big disappointment to the news companies as they had invested heavily in trying to capture the Chinese market by making their Latest Apple news available in Chinese.

The press has also begun to face hardships in the visa process to get into China. Some of the most renowned names in the news industry were denied visa this year and there has been much fuss against it. Chinese censorship policy does not make much sense to those living outside China, to some it comes off as a sheer violation against the right to knowledge. Recently, Reuters was blocked without a said reason.

In 2011, Twitter was banned in China, because the establishment feared its ability to spread anarchy and public unrest. However, a Chinese app known as Weibo — similar to Twitter — is a frequently used medium in the mainland. It is important to also note that both Google and Facebook are banned in China. Of all the significant social media platforms available, only LinkedIn has the permission to operate in China.