Those who use RSS readers in China are scarce, as the majority of China’s internet users - 940 million as of late - receive their dose of news through domestic services, from algorithmic news aggregators such as ByteDance’s Toutiao and WeChat’s built-in content subscription feature to apps of mainstream local outlets. Feed readers of RSS, or Real Simple Syndication, are particularly troubling to the authority because they fetch content from third-party websites, allowing users to bypass China’s Great Firewall and reach otherwise forbidden information, though users have reported not all RSS apps can circumvent the elaborate censorship system. Two RSS reader apps, Reeder and Fiery Feeds, said this week that their iOS apps have been removed in China over content that deemed “illegal” by the local cyber watchdog.Īpps get banned in China for all sorts of reasons.
It looks like Apple is scouring its Chinese App Store for any remaining services that may not sit well with Chinese censors.
