Apple is once again coming under fire for making concessions to China, after choosing to remove the popular podcast apps Pocket Casts and Castro from the Chinese version of the App Store.
According to the developers behind Pocket Casts, the app has been removed following a request from the Chinese authorities, since it was possible to use it to access content that is banned in the country, reports The Verge. However, precise details are not forthcoming.
In the past, many apps have been removed from the Chinese App Store, including VPN services that allow users to evade censorship. The standard wording from Apple about these kinds of incidents is that you have an obligation to follow the laws of the countries where you operate, but that hasn’t cut much ice with the company’s critics.
This article originally appeared on MacWorld Sweden. Translation by David Price.