Apple News is blocked in China

Apple's new News app is unavailable in China. Whether Apple is blocking it or the News app has succumbed to the Chinese government's "Great Firewall" remains unclear. Apple won't say. So far, the app has officially launched only in the United States, and is being tested in the United Kingdom and Australia. But US iPhone owners have been able to use the News app in many places around the world, including Hong Kong -- yet they are prevented from accessing the app while in mainland China.

Reporters in China and Hong Kong were able to download Apple News Oct 12, after switching their iPhone regions to the United States. When operating on a mobile network in Hong Kong, which is not subject to Beijing's censorship rules, the app functioned normally. But when connected in Beijing, an error message appeared when trying to open previously loaded stories. "Story Unavailable: News isn't supported in your current region," the message said.