As for why, it’s thought that the move is basically Apple’s way to avoid any kind of self-censorship that the Chinese government would otherwise insist on. This was followed up by an observation from a New York Times source who told the publication News cannot be accessed in the country. iOS News can only be downloaded if you’re in America, and in select parts of Australia and the United Kingdom, where it has rolled out on a test basis. “For now, Apple seems to be avoiding the whole issue by completely disabling the service for users in China”. The difficulty is the idea that, in case you purchase and mount out of your You can introduce.S. just for instance, you will likely observe the News everywhere you go in the country.
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The reported action comes after Apple’s CEO Tim Cook met with China’s president Xi Jinping and Lu Wei, China’s Internet Czar in Seattle in September.
As Apple did not publicize this, it was a developer who first spotted this issue. What’s even stranger is the fact that the Apple News application works fine when using Hong Kong mobile networks. The censorship also affects news downloaded before a user enters China. On device censorship is much different than having your server blocked by the Great Firewall or not enabling a feature for customers with certain country iTunes account.
The New York Times reports that Apple confirmed, off the record, that it is indeed turning off Apple News in Mainland China.
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Apparently, the New York Times reports, access to the Apple News app, which was announced in June and may or may not contain the secret to the future of journalism, has been disabled in China. In China, iOS users from the United States, who back home and in other countries would normally see a list of articles to read based on the criteria they set, are instead receiving an error message. “It bothers me not because Apple does it, but because they have no option but to do it and it is only going to get worse”, one commenter wrote. “News isn’t supported in your current region”. Simply removing the news App might be better than upsetting Beijing.
