Tech giant Apple has pulled Meta Platforms' WhatsApp and Threads applications from its App Store in China on orders from the country's internet regulator, according to multiple U.S. media reports and company on Friday.
"We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree," Apple said in a statement, according to Bloomberg.
"The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns," it added, referring to China's internet regulator.
"These apps remain available for download on all other storefronts where they appear."
Other Meta apps including Facebook, Instagram and Messenger remained available, according to Reuters checks on Friday morning. Many other popular apps developed by Western companies including YouTube and X were also available for download.
It was not immediately clear how WhatsApp or Threads might have caused security concerns for Chinese authorities.
"The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns," Apple said in an emailed statement to Reuters as well.
A Meta spokesperson referred Agence France-Presse (AFP) to Apple, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The App Store did not display any search results for WhatsApp or Threads when tested by AFP in China.
Encrypted messaging apps Telegram and Signal were also not available, with Bloomberg reporting, citing consultants, that they had been removed.
AFP has reached out to Signal and Telegram for comment.
The CAC and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology – another top Chinese regulatory body – did not immediately respond.
Thorny issues
China is a key market for Apple, which last year topped the country's smartphone market for the first time.
But thorny issues of censorship and national security have long hounded the U.S. tech giant's operations in China, as well as Beijing and Washington's fierce battle for technological supremacy.
In January, China said it had cracked Apple's encrypted AirDrop file transfer service, which had once given protesters a vital channel for sharing information during the 2019 protests in Hong Kong.
Many platforms that are popular in much of the world including Google, Facebook, X, WhatsApp and TikTok – are blocked in mainland China.
But savvy Chinese iPhone users have still been able to download banned apps and use them through a VPN to dodge restrictions.
The removal of WhatsApp and Threads from the Chinese App Store came a day before a scheduled vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on a bill that includes provisions to force TikTok to sever all links with its Chinese parent ByteDance over national security concerns.
Beijing has frequently lashed out against U.S. restrictions on Chinese tech, claiming they are a pretext to contain the country's economic rise.
Some experts on China's tech industry said the government order on WhatsApp and Threads could be related to a new rule last August that requires all apps available in China to register with the government or risk being removed.
The deadline for companies to complete registrations was the end of March and the regulations came into effect on April 1.
Apple has removed apps from its China app store before.
In 2017, Apple removed The New York Times news app saying it violated local regulations and remains unavailable on Apple's China App Store.
Last year, Apple pulled some ChatGPT-like apps when Beijing was working on local regulations on generative artificial intelligence (AI) services.
The removal of WhatsApp and Threads from the China App Store was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.