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Updated October 17th, 2021 at 12:33 IST

China: Apple removes holy books, Audible from app store due to 'permit requirements'

Amazon’s audiobook service ‘Audible’ and phone apps for reading the holy books of Islam and Christianity have disappeared from the Apple store in mainland China

Reported by: Bhavya Sukheja
China
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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Amid Beijing's crackdown on internet firms, Amazon’s audiobook service ‘Audible’ and phone apps for reading the holy books of Islam and Christianity have disappeared from the Apple store in mainland China. According to The Associated Press, Audible on Friday, 15 October, said that it removed its app from the Apple store in mainland China last month “due to permit requirements”. The makers of the apps for reading and listening to the Quran and Bible also said that their apps have been removed from Apple’s China-based store at the Chinese government’s request. 

As per reports, the maker of a Bible app said that it removed its app from the Apple store in China after learning from Apple’s App Store review process that it needed special permission to distribute an app with “book or magazine content”. US-based Olive Tree Bible Software said that it is now reviewing the requirements to obtain the necessary permit with the hope that it restore the app to China’s App Store and continue to distribute the Bible worldwide. 

On the other hand, Pakistan Data Management Services, which makes a Quaran app, said that it is awaiting more information from China’s internet authority about how it can be restored. While speaking to AP, the company’s head of growth and relationships, Hasan Shafiq Ahmed, informed that the app has nearly one million users in China and about 40 million worldwide. Ahmed said that those who had already download the app can still use it. However, he added that his Karachi-based company is looking to figure out what documentation is needed to get approval from Chinese authorities so the app can be restored. 

‘Decision must be reversed’ 

The removal of the apps was first detected this week by AppleCensorship, a website that monitors Apple’s app store in a bid to detect when and where apps have been blocked. Following the disappearance of Bible and Quran apps in mainland China, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned Apple’s actions, saying the company was enabling the Chinese government’s religious persecution of Muslims and others. CAIR's national deputy director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, called for a reversal of the decision and said that if corporations don’t stand up to China right now, they risk spending the following years subservient to the whiles of a “fascist superpower”. 

“This decision must be reversed," said a statement from CAIR's national deputy director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell. “If American corporations don’t grow a spine and stand up to China right now, they risk spending the next century subservient to the whims of a fascist superpower.”

(With inputs from AP)

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Published October 17th, 2021 at 12:33 IST

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