Cybersecurity
Skype Disappears From Chinese App Stores in Latest Web Crackdown
- Apple says it removed 674 VPN apps from its app store in China
- Senator tells Apple to push back against Chinese ‘suppression’
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Microsoft Corp.’s Skype has vanished from Apple Inc. and Android smartphone app stores in China, becoming the latest victim in Beijing’s sweeping internet clampdown.
The internet phone and video service was no longer available on Apple’s iOS or on popular local Android stores such as Xiaomi Corp.’s, though it still functioned as of Wednesday. The Ministry of Public Security notified Apple that a number of voice-over-internet-protocol apps didn’t comply with local law and the U.S. company subsequently removed them, a spokeswoman for the iPhone maker said. Those apps, which enable voice calls among other things, remain in place elsewhere.