Apple has removed the popular podcasting app Pocket Casts from the Chinese App Store on the request of the Chinese government.
According to the official Pocket Casts Twitter account, Apple has contacted the app team two days ago to inform that Pocket Casts would be removed from the App Store in China. The company has confirmed that the request was made by the Cyberspace Administration of China, which is the local government agency that controls what can be accessed on the Internet in the country.
As the Pocket Casts team points out that this is clearly censorship to prevent the Chinese from accessing the news, they will not respond to requests from the Chinese government to take down podcasts. Unfortunately, Pocket Casts app is not expected to return to the App Store anymore.
Pocket Casts has been removed from the Chinese App store by Apple, at the request of the Cyberspace Administration of China. We believe podcasting is and should remain an open medium, free of government censorship. As such we won’t be censoring podcast content at their request.
— Pocket Casts (@pocketcasts) June 11, 2020
Apple has previously removed hundreds of apps from the Chinese App Store on the request of the government. In early 2017, the company removed all VPN apps from the Chinese App Store along with the New York Times app on request of the government.
In fact, Apple removed over 58,000 apps in just two weeks from the App Store on the request of the Chinese government. Apple also removed Skype from the App Store in the same year to comply with local laws. The next year, Apple removed all illegal gambling apps from the App Store in China.
Bijay Pokharel
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