Apple said to have disabled News app in China

Apple's all new News App, a replacement for Newsstand, has been disabled in China. Unveiled in June, the built-in app was released along with the iOS 9 mobile operating system to users across the globe, on 16 September.

According to the New York Times, people in the know, have stated that users in China no longer have access to the news service. The app is currently available for users in the US. Those who have downloaded the app in the country can view content while travelling to other countries, but it does not work in China.

The Apple News feed now shows an error message stating: "Can't refresh right now. News isn't supported in your region." The issue was initially spotted by software developer, Larry Salibra, founder of Pay4Bugs -- a software testing service -- who mentioned in a tweet that Apple News was disabled while roaming in China, but it worked fine while using Hong Kong mobile networks.

"They're censoring news content that I downloaded and stored on my device purchased in the USA, before I even enter China just because my phone happens to connect to a Chinese signal floating over the border. On device censorship is much different than having your server blocked by the Great Firewall or not enabling a feature for customers with certain country iTunes account. That Apple has little choice doesn't make it any less creepy or outrageous," noted Salibra in a Reddit discussion forum.