The Chinese government has banned download stores from letting Tencent update its current apps and games or release new apps. The company is getting “temporary administrative guidance,” presumably because of the privacy policies of its apps.
Users can continue to install and use the apps, China Star Market notes. So it’s just about updating existing apps and games and releasing new ones. Tencent confirms the story in a response and says it will cooperate with inspection of its apps and games.
With this inspection, the Chinese ministry responsible for ICT wants to pre-approve all updates, which can take up to a week, CCTV reports. The rules are related to the new privacy law that came into effect in China on November 1. Earlier this month, the Chinese government already mentioned three Tencent apps that were collecting too much personal data, including Tencent News and QQ Music, according to Reuters. It is unknown whether this sanction is related to the warning earlier this month.
For now, there are no consequences for users. The Chinese ministry itself has not yet said anything about the matter, which has come out through Chinese-language media. Tencent is one of China’s tech giants. His most popular app is WeChat, which has 1.2 billion users and is used by users for chatting as well as for many other things, such as payments and orders for many things.
The Chinese government has become stricter on tech companies in the past year. For example, Alibaba founder Jack Ma disappeared a few months last year after critical comments about the government and game companies were confronted with strict rules about gaming for minors.