Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from China store under pressure from Beijing

An Apple store in China. Apple said it had removed Meta mobile communications applications WhatsApp and Threads from its online store in China under direction from the country’s internet regulator. Photographer: Andrea Verdelli/BloombergApple said it had removed Meta mobile communications applications WhatsApp and Threads from its online store in China under direction from the country’s internet regulator.

WhatsApp has more than 2 billion monthly active users globally. Threads, a Twitter-like offshoot of the Instagram photo and video platform, was the fourth most downloaded service in app stores worldwide in December, according to Appfigures.

The delistings came after China’s powerful internet regulator and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology set a deadline of April 1st for apps operating in China to formally register with the government, said Rich Bishop, chief executive of AppInChina, a leading publisher of international apps in the country.Mr Bishop said Apple was already enforcing the filing requirement for Chinese developer accounts, and was required to do so for international services.

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg made considerable efforts a decade ago to reverse a Chinese ban on Facebook, learning Mandarin to speak to president Xi Jinping and taking his team on a well-publicised jog through heavily polluted Beijing. But the company was ultimately unable to get permission to operate locally.

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