Apple’s URL-redirect news app has stopped working behind the Great Firewall of China, it has emerged. “News isn’t supported in your region” error message when trying to see the list of selected articles.
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Even if you’ve installed the news app in the USA, it won’t pull new content if your iOS device is connecting from mainland China. He was able to deduce that Apple is blocking access to the app based on which carrier the phone connects to. Even if that were not the case for the current situation, Beijing generally insists that companies (especially those dealing with software manufacturing) are responsible for censoring sensitive content inside China.
Fans of Apple’s iOS News app who are traveling in China are going to have to look for another way to get their news while on the mainland, where media censorship runs rampant. It’s unclear whether the app is temporarily disabled while Apple figures out how to enact that system, or finished permanently to avoid any entanglements with the country’s ruling party. The only possible explanation was that Apple News is now blocked in China.
The app, meant to be a personalized digital magazine and newspaper viewer, launched to United States users in June. Apple has not provided an official explanation yet, but tech developers think the decision to block Apple News in China has been adopted to prevent self-censorship rules imposed by the Chinese government. Apple itself is reportedly blocking it from loading news in the country.
Facebook, Google, Apple, and other Internet companies are not the only ones who have been affected by China’s censorship rules. “That Apple has little choice doesn’t make it any less creepy or outrageous”, another wrote.
Rather than dealing with the thorny issues of figuring out which articles to censor to appease Chinese authorities, Apple may have figrured it’s easier to simply disable the news app entirely in the country. Apple users in the country are apparently seeing a message that reads as follows. Salibra has dubbed Apple’s control over a device’s content delivery the “China Kill Switch”.
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The Chinese market happens to be Apple’s second-largest after the United States.
