Apple users in China won't be able to find and download WhatsApp and Threads from the App Store anymore, according to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The company said it pulled the apps from the store to comply with orders it received from Cyberspace Administration, China's internet regulator, "based on [its] national security concerns." It explained to the publications that it's "obligated to follow the laws in the countries where [it operates], even when [it disagrees]." The...
Making users pay is only way to stop bots taking over platform
The decision follows a mandate from government authorities.
According to Testut, iGBA was a knockoff of GBA4iOS, which he developed while still in high school. Testut expressed frustration that Apple approved the clone (despite it being filled with ads and trackers) while his own app had been stuck in the approval process for well over a month.Read Entire Article
Frankly, another unauthorized software related to Nintendo getting taken down is par for the course and not all that surprising. However, it is notable that iGBA's takedown originated from something other than Nintendo's DMCA legal hounds. Apple either removed it for its own reasons or the developer of the GBA4iOSRead Entire Article
Apple is opening up web distribution for iOS apps targeting users in the European Union starting Tuesday. Developers who opt in — and who meet Apple’s criteria, including app notarization requirements — will be able to offer iPhone apps for direct download to EU users from their own websites. It’s a massive change for a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X just announced a smart TV app for streaming video. Or, more accurately, that it claims it's building one, with absolutely no launch date mentioned. The appropriately-named X TV wants to be “your go-to companion for a high-quality, immersive entertainment experience on a larger screen.” By high-quality entertainment, X likely means that one Tucker Carlson video where he’s really impressed by grocery carts in Russia. That’s not a joke. Carlson is featured prominently in the little teaser video....
Spotify has not been able to get Apple to approve an EU app update that added information on subscription pricing and links to the Spotify website, and it turns out that's because Spotify has not agreed to the terms of Apple's Music Streaming Services Entitlement. A recent antitrust ruling from the European Commission fined Apple nearly $2 billion and mandated that Apple "remove anti-steering provisions" for music apps in the European Economic Area (EEA). As a result, Apple updated its App...
Encrypted apps Telegram and Signal are also unavailable in the China app store, according to a censorship tracker.
Apple said it removed Meta-owned apps WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China. The US company was ordered to do so by the state government, which cited national security concerns. Other Meta apps including Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram remain available, as well as other popular US social media apps like YouTube or X (formerly Twitter). Apple stated that the Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront. "We are obligated to...
Company says Chinese government ordered it to remove two Meta-owned apps for ‘national security’ reasonsApple has removed WhatsApp and Threads from its Chinese App Store after the Chinese government ordered it to do so for “national security” reasons.Apple confirmed it had withdrawn the two apps – both owned by Meta, also the owner of Facebook – under instruction from the Cyberspace Administration of China, which regulates and censors China’s highly restricted internet and online content....
Apple has removed Meta-owned apps WhatsApp and Threads from the China App Store after government officials claimed national security concerns. China dictates what it allows on its country's internet and App Store The App Store culling continues in China after 30,000 games, then an additional 94,000 games, 44,000 apps, then 100 ChatGPT-like apps were removed over the past four years. The government in China is the driving force behind these app removals, but a more significant App Store...