Apple is talking with Chinese telecom firms to find ways to reduce spam received through its messaging service after state media alleged it was allowing illegal content on its iMessage/Messages platform, reports Reuters.
The tech giant has been targeted by China’s state media and the official state broadcaster railed against it in a 30-minute special report on Tuesday, saying Apple allowed illegal content such as gambling apps.
“We are in touch with domestic telco companies to see what additional steps could be taken to reduce this inconvenience,” an Apple spokeswoman told Reuters. It had on Wednesday declined to comment on the reports.
The Cupertino, California-based company has been criticized in the past for bowing to Chinese censorship demands. In August 2017, the Free Enterprise Project , a conservative shareholder activist organization calls on Apple and Amazon “to recommit to protecting human rights after both companies recently, and hypocritically, bowed to Chinese government pressure regarding Internet censorship.”
The FED, which focuses on shareholder activism and the confluence of big government and big business, pointed out that both companies routinely attack federal- and state-level government actions in the U.S. under the supposed banner of human rights, but have quickly abandoned those principles to do Beijing’s bidding.
The followed Apple’s removal of upwards of 60 virtual private network (VPN) services from its app store in China. VPNs allow users to skirt China’s “great firewall” that blocks its citizens from accessing many Internet sites, including Facebook and Twitter.
