Apple confirms its removal of 25,000 illegal gambling-related apps from its App Store in China hence facing criticisms from official media for inadequately protecting users against illegal apps.
Apple states that Gambling apps “are illegal and not allowed on the App Store in China”
The company states that they have removed many companies and developers with gambling apps to make protection much more secure on the App Store. They feel that they are cautious in their effort “to find these and stop them from being on the App Store.”
Though the exact number of apps removed has not been confirmed by the company, Chinese broadcaster CCTV says that 25,000 apps have been removed which would be less than two percent of the estimated 1.8 million apps on the App Store in the country.
Another Chinese state media also quoted the CCTV report and said that Apple had recently removed more than 2,000 apps related to gambling and more than 500 apps that consists of the keyword “lottery” were pulled.
In order to reduce fraudulent activity on the App Store, we are no longer allowing gambling apps submitted by individual developers. – Apple
Last year, Apple removed many virtual private network services from the Chinese App Store for not meeting Beijing’s “new regulations.” VPNs are used to bypass China’s “Great Firewall” that heavily restricts internet access to foreign sites.
Thus this is not the first time that Apple has been listening to the demands of the Chinese Government. This shows that Apple has been working hard to grow its business with China.
