China’s move to restrict the apps would close a loophole in the Great Firewall that allows Chinese iPhone users to download popular Western social-media apps such as Instagram, X (formerly called Twitter), Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp.
While China has for years blocked web access to those sites, iPhone users who download the services’ apps can engage on the platforms if they log on through a virtual private network, or VPN, that connects them to an internet server outside the country. Many users, especially younger people, do this even though China bans the use of unauthorized VPNs.
Combined, those five social-media apps have been downloaded from Apple’s app store more than 170 million times in China over the past decade, according to estimates by Sensor Tower, a market insights company. Some apps such as X were used to spread information and videos of protests against Covid rules in China that erupted late last year.
By next July, Apple will no longer be able to offer such apps in its China app store unless the app operators are registered with the government, under new rules issued by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in July this year.
Analysts say those operators are unlikely to register with the Chinese government because they could then have to comply with data transfer and censorship requirements, leaving Apple no choice but to remove them or face legal punishment.