This tension has existed for years, and a new report examining Apple’s App Store in China shows the consequences. The store lacks many apps available elsewhere in the world, in part because of China’s direct censorship. The report was prepared by Greatfire.org, which monitors and challenges internet censorship in China, in collaboration with Article 19, which defends freedom of expression globally.
Apps are a huge part of digital life and commerce. Apple says there are 1.8 million apps in the App Store, 734.6 million average weekly visitors, 787 million average weekly downloads and 52.6 billion average weekly automatic app updates. “The App Store is an economic miracle benefiting developers globally,” Apple said in a statement to us. “It facilitated $1.1 trillion in commerce in a single year, including $570 billion in China — 90 percent of which accrued to developers.” What Apple calls “Greater China,” which includes mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, is Apple’s third-largest region by revenue, representing 19 percent of Apple’s total sales last fiscal year.
China’s App Store is the most isolated in the world. According to the new report, of the 108 most downloaded apps worldwide, 55 are not available in China and nine more are available but blocked by the Chinese authorities, rendering them nonfunctional in China, including: Google Maps, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Messenger, Twitter (now X) and WhatsApp Business. The report also found that of the top 10 most downloaded apps worldwide, none are accessible to Chinese users: Five are not in the App Store, and five are downloadable but blocked.
Games are the globe’s largest overall category of apps, so it is not surprising that they constitute the largest group of apps unavailable in China. Games are subject to strict Chinese licensing requirements. China’s government made 1,285 app takedown requests to Apple last year, of which 1,067 were game apps removed for lack of a legally required license, according to the company’s 2023 App Store transparency report.
Virtual private networks, which allow users inside China to penetrate the Great Firewall and access the internet outside China, are a major category of unavailable apps in China. VPNs must be approved by the state, the new report says. Apple purged the major VPNs from the App Store in 2017. Also unavailable in the App Store are privacy and digital security apps, which offer services such as secure browsing, encryption, protection against cyberthreats and mobile security. A third hard-to-find group is social media and communication apps, which are either unavailable or blocked, including Skype, Viber, Telegram, Signal and WhatsApp. The list of news apps that are censored is long and growing; Chinese authorities often ask Apple to take them down “in response to what they perceive as harmful coverage of China’s politics and current events,” the report says. Many religion apps are also unavailable in the App Store — including those related not only to Tibet and Buddhism but also Christianity, Islam and Judaism, including 11 Torah apps. The report found that availability of LGBTQ+ apps was mixed; some remain in the App Store, while others do not.
Apps might be missing from the App Store for reasons other than direct censorship. Apple says developers often elect to remove their apps from the China store or not to distribute there at all. The report mentions a developer of a Uyghur app as saying he decided not to make it available in the App Store anticipating possible targeting by the Chinese authorities, who have been waging a campaign to wipe out Uyghur culture and language in Xinjiang. The developer was worried about security if local police caught users with his app.
Apple says it must follow local laws in China, even those with which it disagrees, and that it is determined to remain engaged in China, a vital market. But Apple could be more transparent about China’s direct requests for app takedowns from the App Store. Right now, Apple lists the totals but does not say which apps China tried to remove. Casting some sunshine on this information would be a useful step toward fulfilling the company’s declared commitment to openness.
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