China’s information ministry announced that all mobile app providers in the country will be required to disclose company details to the government, marking the latest step by Beijing to keep the industry in check.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said late Tuesday that apps that do not have correct filings will be penalized after the grace period expires in March next year, a move that experts warn might limit the number of apps and hurt small developers hard.
According to You Yunting, a lawyer with Shanghai-based DeBund Law Offices, the directive effectively necessitates clearance from the government. He said that the new law is primarily intended to prevent online fraud, but it will affect all apps in China.
Rich Bishop, co-founder of app publishing service AppInChina, believes the new restriction will also affect foreign-based developers who have previously been able to quickly publish their apps through Apple’s App Store without having to submit any proof to the Chinese government.
Bishop said in order to comply with the new laws, app developers must now either have a company in China or collaborate with a Chinese publisher.
Apple did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Last week, the iPhone maker removed over a hundred artificial intelligence (AI) apps from the App Store to conform with laws imposed by China, which created a new licensing scheme for generating AI programmes in the country.
According to the notification, organizations engaged in internet information services through apps in such fields as news, publishing, education, film and television, and religion should also submit relevant documents.
The requirement may have an impact on the availability of popular social networking apps like X, Facebook, and Instagram. Although such apps are not permitted in China, they can still be downloaded from app stores, allowing Chinese citizens to use them when traveling abroad.
China already requires mobile games to obtain licenses before they can be released in the nation, and by 2020, it had removed tens of thousands of unlicensed games from various app stores.
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