Apple has complied with a request from Beijing to remove the New York Times from its Chinese App Store.
“We have been informed that the app is in violation of local regulations. As a result, the app must be taken down off the China App Store,” Apple said in a statement. “When this situation changes, the App Store will once again offer the New York Times app for download in China.”
Apple has not clarified which specific rules or regulations were broken by the paper, which claims the removal of their app was aimed at preventing readers in China “from accessing independent news coverage”.
Bothe English-language and Chinese-language versions of the New York times app was removed from the App Store in China on 23 December.
The American paper said they had asked Apple to reconsider their decision.
The New York Time website has been blocked in China since 2012 after publishing reports on the private wealth of certain Chinese political elite and their families.
“The request by the Chinese authorities to remove our apps is part of their wider attempt to prevent readers in China from accessing independent news coverage by The New York Times of that country, coverage which is no different from the journalism we do about every other country in the world,” the paper’s spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said.
Other apps from some other international media outlets are still available including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, BBC News, the Financial Times, ABC News, CNN, and Reuters.
