Skype is the latest messaging app to disappear from Chinese app stores

Skype falls victim to China's strict cybersecurity laws and Internet regulations.

Yet another popular communications app has disappeared from app stores in China. According to a report from The New York Times, Microsoft's messaging service Skype is no longer available from app stores, including Apple's App Store. Google's Play Store doesn't operate in China, but Skype hasn't appeared on the various third-party Android app stores in the country since late October.

“We have been notified by the Ministry of Public Security that a number of voice over Internet protocol apps do not comply with local law,” an Apple spokeswoman told The New York Times. “These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business.”

Skype still functions in China, and Microsoft spokesperson quoted in the report said the Skype app had been "temporarily removed" from Apple's App Store, An Apple representative stated the company is "working to reinstate the program as soon as possible." However, that doesn't address Skype's removal on a number of websites from which Android users can download apps for their devices.

It's unclear if Skype mobile apps will return to these app stores in the future. This is just the latest push from the Chinese government to block Internet-enabled applications over which it doesn't have full control. WhatsApp is unusable in China ever since the government blocked the Facebook-owned app earlier this year. Recently, the government has blocked other programs including Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Line, and Telegram.

A new cybersecurity law is suspected to be the reason why Skype has been blocked. Implemented in June, the new law cracks down hard on communications tools that the local government cannot control, even though it doesn't explicitly ban foreign messaging apps.

As a whole, China has become very strict about blocking or throttling foreign programs that might hinder the government's ability to filter to flow of information into the country. One of the most recent and somewhat peculiar restrictions shut down LTE service for new Apple Watch Series 3 devices in China, as the government doesn't currently have a plan to regulate or control eSIM use.

While Google doesn't have control over third-party app websites that provide Android apps to Chinese users, this Skype block is another thorn in Apple's side. In recent memory, Apple has removed its iBooks and iTunes Movie services in China, along with a bunch of VPN service apps from the local App Store. Many users were frustrated with the VPN removal, as those programs gave Chinese citizens a way to bypass the "Great Firewall" that controls Internet content available in the country.

Despite user irritation, Apple has stated that those apps and programs will only be reinstated to its App Store once Apple has complied with local laws and obtained necessary licenses.