Apple Reportedly Disables Its News App In China (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader writes: When Apple launched iOS 9, it replaced its Newsstand app with Apple News. The software has only been available to users in the U.S., but those who registered their phones in the U.S. had no problem using the app while overseas. Now, the NY Times reports that Apple is specifically disabling the app for users located in China. "Those in China who look at the top of the Apple News feed, which would normally display a list of selected articles based on a user's preferred media, instead see an error message: 'Can't refresh right now. News isn't supported in your current region.' ... Beijing generally insists that companies are responsible for censoring sensitive content inside China. In Apple's case, that would mean it would probably have to develop a censorship system — most Chinese companies use a combination of automated software and employees — to eliminate sensitive articles from feeds."

Comments

Re:Heavy handed approach?

[Chris Mattern]

So instead of localized news, you get no news, *at all*?

Yes. Because in this case, "localized news" means "doing the Chinese government's censorship for them." That's a principled stance--not the most principled stance, but Apple does need to show a profit.

Why even put the app there? Furthermore, why would someone not in China want the extra code to perform this check on their phone? What purpose would it serve in this case?

It shows the Chinese user what he's missing--although this may or may not have been part of Apple's intention. The main thing is this isn't about the phone, it's about where the phone is. When you take it into China, this happens. When you take it out of China, it stops happening. So all phones have the code since any phone might be taken into China (if I'm reading this correctly, it isn't code in the phone performing the check, it's Apple's News servers doing it when the phone asks for News).