Apple’s App Store is yet to submit business details as they are not included in the first batch of mobile app stores that have completed the submission amid China’s new mobile app regulations.
As a sign that it has started enforcing new regulations that expand its oversight of mobile applications, China’s cyberspace regulator announced on Wednesday the names of the first batch of mobile app stores that had finished providing business information to regulators.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) reports that a total of 26 app shops run by businesses like Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi have filed documents with the government.
Over the past few years, Beijing has increased its monitoring of mobile app and smartphone use. The nation now demands that mobile app retailers and mobile apps provide the government with business information.
The industry is concerned that these laws will make it impossible to publish apps in the second-largest economy in the world and that many apps may need to be removed.
When the CAC released a new guideline in June of last year requiring app stores to provide company details and announcing it would hold app stores accountable if apps contained unlawful content, Beijing’s push to increase surveillance of apps came into sharper focus.
Another notice requiring mobile apps to finish filing by the end of March was published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in August of this year.
Apple has not specified how its Chinese app store will adhere to Beijing’s new regulations. According to experts, if Apple complies, it will result in thousands of apps being withdrawn from Apple’s App Store in China.