Apple stated that, by order of the Chinese government, citing national security concerns, Meta’s end-to-end encrypted messaging application WhatsApp and Twitter-like text-based social networking application Threads were removed from the App Store for the same reason. In the statement made by Apple, it was said: “The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered these applications to be removed from the Chinese store due to national security concerns.”
Telegram and Signal — two other foreign messaging apps — were also removed from the store on Friday, according to app tracking firms Qimai and AppMagic, according to Reuters.
Beijing’s Retaliation on US TikTok Ban?
It can be thought that this move by China is a retaliation for the bill issued in America to ban TikTok.
The USA’s war with TikTok continues. A vote was held in the House of Representatives on the social media platform TikTok. In the vote held in the parliament, the bill that would ban TikTok, the social media platform owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, in the country unless its US assets are sold to another company, was accepted with 360 votes against 58.
It now moves to the Senate where it could be taken up for a vote in the coming days. President Joe Biden has previously said he would sign the legislation on TikTok, according to Reuters.
Many Countries are Concerned About TikTok’s Security and the Platform’s Ties to China
A growing number of governments have banned the popular video-sharing app TikTok from devices issued to staff as privacy and cybersecurity concerns rise. A handful have imposed nationwide bans on the app.
