China shuts down two Apple services

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By Terry

The Chinese government is not showing any signs of loosening its tight regulation of online content- despite president Xi’s remarks. Apple has become the latest firm to feel the squeeze of a new regulation unveiled in March which outlawed foreign ownership of online publishing services. The rule requires all content available to Chinese people to be stored on servers based on the Chinese mainland.

In line with the new regulation, Apple's online book and movie services have been shut down by the Chinese government. 

A message in Chinese saying the services are "unusable" currently greets anyone who attempts to access the books store or the iTunes Movies service. Both services have only been available in China for about six months.

Even with the difficulty faced by most foreign related giant companies such as Google and Facebook, Apple has enjoyed much success in China, and recently launched its Apple Pay to further boost its presence in the country. In fact, China is Apple's second-largest market by revenue, but it seems like all that is about to change now that the Chinese regulators have turned their attention to the mobile tech giant. 

"We hope to make books and movies available again to our customers in China as soon as possible," an Apple spokeswoman said in a statement without further elaboration on the issue.

The shutdown, which was ordered by China's media watchdog - the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT)- has been viewed by some as a way of consolidating control over the internet and media organizations by the Chinese government, while other analyst see it as a way of boosting indigenous firms.  

China has defended its actions by insisting that online publishing was monitored as a way of combating terrorism and foreign ideas that could prove harmful.

Sources: BBC.com & English.EntGroup.cn 

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