In its pursuit to uphold online censorship in the country or the #GreatFirewall, including the ban of websites such as Facebook, the Chinese government has continued it through the withdrawal of Mobile Applications. Apple, in which china is the company's second biggest market outside the United States, removed certain apps unfavorable to the government in its China App Store
Continuing Web Crackdowns on Apps
Certain apps have programming made by remote organizations to enable clients to eschew the nation's arrangement of web channels. The expulsions are part of the push by Beijing to control the web in the country.
Before, the #GreatFirewall has utilized innovation to upset Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), and the government has closed down Chinese VPNs and even pointed a tremendous cyberattack at a notable remote site facilitating code that dodged the channels. Web crackdowns happen frequently at regular intervals, in front of a key Chinese Communist Party congress, showing that there is more progress in its acts of censorship.
Just last January, Apple removed New York Times apps from its app store due to the request by the Government. "We have been informed that the app violates local regulations. Due to this, the app must be taken down off the China App Store." Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy commented that, "The request by the Chinese authorities to remove our apps is part of their wider attempt to prevent readers in China from accessing independent news coverage by The New York Times of that country."
Access to the Internet claimed as a Human Rights Issue
The people who support the apps are currently unhappy with this move by Apple.
According to Sunday Yokubaitis, who is the leader of Golden Frog, an organization that makes protection and security programming said that its product had been removed from the app store. He said that, "we are to a great degree disillusioned that Apple has bowed to weight from China to expel VPN applications without referring to any Chinese law or direction that makes VPN illegal." He also stated that, "We see access to Internet in China as a human rights issue and I see that Apple will esteem human rights over benefits."
Apple has run its application store in China for a very long time with the Government sometimes intervening in its operations.
This month, Apple stated it would open its first server farm in China to agree to another law that pushes outside firms to store a greater amount of their information in China. Through Apple's moves, it is clear that the company remains to be with the side of Beijing. The controversy involving the removal on the said apps and its role in barring access to information from outside sources, however, might continue indefinitely.
