Apple has moved to cut about 25,000 gambling apps from its China App Store after being criticized by Chinese media.
Apple did not confirm it has removed the apps, but issued a statement saying “gambling apps are illegal and not allowed on the App Store in China.”
The company was recently criticized by state broadcaster CCTV for not filtering out the apps, which are illegal under Chinese law. The broadcaster said Apple had made a “large-scale removal of illegal apps that sold fake lottery tickets and offered gambling services”.
“We have already removed many apps and developers for trying to distribute illegal gambling apps on our App Store, and we are vigilant in our efforts to find these and stop them from being on the App Store,” Apple said in its statement.
Apple has been criticized in the past by China’s media for having illegal apps in its China store and has removed services such as Skype and hundreds of virtual private networks which are used to send secure emails, transmit data and access websites that are blocked in China.
