The internet phone and messaging app is the latest Western product to vanish amid a national cyber crackdown.
Communicating electronically in China just got a little tougher.
Skype, the internet phone and messaging service owned by Microsoft, has been scrubbed from app stores in China, becoming the latest product to vanish amid the ruling Communist Party’s crackdown on cyber content.
Apple, which confirmed the program’s removal from its own app store, told Reuters in a statement published Tuesday that the Chinese government had accused the program of violating a local cyberlaw.
“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,” Apple’s statement read.
Microsoft, reached by the BBC, called the removal temporary and said it is “working to reinstate the app as soon as possible.”
As of Tuesday, Skype itself was still functioning in China despite its removal from app stores, The New York Times reported .
Other Western social media sites like Facebook, Google, Instagram and Twitter are banned by the so-called “Great Firewall” of China, which prohibits access to unapproved online content. Chinese authorities have said that such bans are designed to protect personal privacy and prevent online terrorist activity.
