China has reportedly removed 105 mobile apps from various online stores in the country including one from the US-based online travel company Tripadvisor.
The authorities have called the move an effort to “clean up of illegal” apps on the internet while it still remains unclear why the Tripadvisor app was removed from the internet as most of the apps which were banned belonged to local Chinese companies.
Founded in 2000, Tripadvisor is one of the oldest internet travel organizations which facilitates hotel, hospitality and travel site reviews, comparisons along with travel packages.
Meanwhile, the TripTripadvisor website still remains accessible in China without the need for any VPN or other method to bypass the Chinese internet censorship.
In a statement regarding the ban, China’s Cyberspace Administration stated that 105 apps including that of the US travel giant were removed as they were considered to be “illegal.”
The authority termed the move as one among several removals to happen in the future as part of its wide-ranging “clean-up” of online content related to illegal activity, including obscenity, pornography, prostitution, violence, fraud, or gambling.
Yet, the move to remove the TripAdvisor app is seen by many media outlets as a silent retaliation towards the on-going ban the US is currently trying to exert at the short video-sharing platform TikTok which is owned by China-based Bytedance.
TikTok has been recently raking up smaller wins in its bigger battle with the US authorities to remain in operations on American soil without any compromises in its operations or management structure.
The firm has recently received a favorable verdict from a US judge who barred the US Commerce Department from putting on any restrictions it was planning to impose on the platform.
Earlier in the year, the Donald Trump administration had released an executive order to restrict US companies from doing transactions with the Chinese parent company of TikTok, ByteDance.
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