China’s “Great Firewall” is infamous for banning apps and services it has no control over. The government likes to have a tight grip on the flow of information and generally blocks Internet enabled applications over which it doesn’t have full control.
According to an article from The New York Times, Microsoft’s messaging service Skype is no longer available from app stores. This includes Apple’s App Store. Google’s Play Store does not operate in the country. Skype has not appeared on the multitude of third party Android app stores in China since October.
An Apple representative had the following to say.
“We have been notified by the Ministry of Public Security that a number of voice over Internet protocol apps do not comply with local law. These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business.”
The representative further added that the company is working to add the app back to the App store as soon as possible. However, the service still works in the country. A Microsoft representative put it down as a minor issue and that the removal was temporary. This explanation does not explain why the app is missing from Android as well.
There is still no reliable information on if Skype will return to the app stores at any point in the future. WhatsApp is unusable in China ever since the government blocked the Facebook-owned app earlier this year. Recently, the government has blocked other programs including Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Line, and Telegram.
Experts say a new cyber security law might be the cause of this. This aw was laid down last June. It is mainly focused on communications tools that the local government cannot control. The most peculiar decision by the government was to bar the cellular features on the latest Apple Watch Series 3.
