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The move came at roughly the same time that Apple said it took down a number of apps from its China app store that help users vault the Great Firewall. Those apps helped users connect to the rest of the internet world using technology called virtual private networks, or VPNs.

Taken together, the recent moves by Apple and Amazon show how Beijing is increasingly forcing Americas biggest tech companies to play by Chinese rules if they want to maintain access to the market. The push comes even as the number of foreign American tech companies able to operate and compete in China has dwindled.

Beijing has become increasingly emboldened in pushing Americas internet giants to follow its local internet laws, which forbid unregistered censorship-evasion software. Analysts say the government has been more aggressive in pressuring companies to make concessions following the passage of a new cybersecurity law, which went into effect June 1, and ahead of a sensitive Communist Party conclave set for late autumn.

The government has been intent on tightening controls domestically as well. It recently shut down a number of Chinese-run VPNs. New rules posted to government websites in recent days said Communist Party members can be punished for viewing illegal sites and that they must register all foreign or local social media accounts.

Also in response to the new law, Apple said it planned to open a new data center in China and store user data there.

Ms. Wang, who said that Sinnet handles Amazon Web Services operations across China, said that the company has sent letters warning users about such services in the past but that the government had been more focused on other issues.

Amazon Web Services allows companies small and large to lease computing power instead of running their websites or other online services through their own hardware and software. Because Amazons cloud services allow customers to lease servers in China, it could be used to give Chinese internet users access to various types of software that would help them get around the Great Firewall.

Keeping in line with censorship rules is only a part of it. In cloud computing, China requires foreign companies have a local partner and restricts them from owning a controlling stake in any cloud company. New proposed laws, which have drawn complaints of protectionism from American politicians, further restrict the companies from using their own brand and call for them to terminate and report any behavior that violates Chinas laws.

While Microsoft and Amazon both run cloud services in China, similar ones run by local Chinese internet rivals dwarf them in scale. In particular Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba runs its own cloud services, which have grown rapidly in China. In order to operate in the country, Chinas biggest internet companies must stay in close contact with the government and carry out Beijings various demands, whether they be a request for user data or to censor various topics.

While China is not a major market for Amazon, the company has been in the country for a long time and has been pushing its cloud computing services there. Also recently the company announced a partnership with the state-run telecom China Mobile to create a Kindle, the companys e-reader device, aimed at the local Chinese market.

Adam Wu in Beijing contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on August 2, 2017, on Page B7 of the New York edition with the headline: Limiting Online Content, Amazons Cloud Service Bows to Chinas Censors.

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Joining Apple, Amazon's China Cloud Service Bows to Censors - New York Times

Israels communications minister, Ayoub Kara, is moving forward with a plan to ban Qatari state-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera throughout the country.

According to Al Jazeera, the plan would revoke the credentials of all journalists working for the broadcasters Arabic and English credentials, shut down its cable and satellite transmissions, and evict staff from their Jerusalem headquarters. Kara would need approval from the Knesset to move forward with some elements of the plan.

All journalists working within Israel must be accredited by the government, and both civilian and military authorities have wide latitude to censor print and broadcast publications, according to the US State Department. Its unclear whether Israeli authorities will order access to Al Jazeeras web content cut off, though just weeks ago the Knesset approved a law allowing the censorship of content deemed criminal or tied to terror groups.

We have based our decision on the move by Sunni Arab states to close the Al Jazeera offices and prohibiting their work, Kara said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously threatened Al Jazeera over its coverage of violence and security measures at the Temple Mount-Noble Sanctuary compound. One of two police investigations against Netanyahu, both of which appear to be nearing indictments, concerns allegations he secretly held negotiations with an Israeli paper in exchange for good coverage.

In the past few years, Sunni Arab states have accused Qatar of funding extremist groups like al-Qaeda, Hamas and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, though the Qatari government insists it is being scapegoated. Theres some evidence foreign hackers, possibly from the UAE, have deliberately sought to inflame tensions by posting fake articles to the Qatari foreign ministrys web sites.

Months ago, the same governments accusing Qatar of funding terror put in place a regional trade blockade on its land and sea borders, a move enthusiastically backed by President Donald Trump, though said blockade does not seem to be working.

The Committee to Protect Journalists urged Israel to abandon the plan to block the network, with Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour issuing a statement saying Censoring Al-Jazeera or closing its offices will not bring stability to the region, but it would put Israel firmly in the camp of some of the regions worst enemies of press freedom.

Regimes that want to control power will almost always go after two targetsthe media and the foreigners, the American University in Beiruts Rami Khouri told Al Jazeera. Everybody goes after the media.

As the Guardian noted, Al Jazeera has faced crackdowns in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain, with the latter four countries blocking its channel and affiliate sites.

[Al Jazeera]

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Israel Will Ban Al Jazeera and Censor Its Cable and Satellite Transmissions, Comms Ministry Says - Gizmodo

Beijing appeared to have doubled down on its crackdown of the internet in China, with news emerging that over the weekend, Apple pulled several virtual private network (VPN) services from the local version of the App Store.

Multiple VPN service providers, affected by the decision, slammed the move online, calling it a "dangerous precedent" set by Apple, which governments in other countries may follow.

VPN service providers received notification from Apple on July 29 that their apps were removed from the China App Store for including "content that is illegal" in the mainland, according to a screenshot posted by ExpressVPN.

VPNs let users in China bypass the country's famous "Great Firewall" that heavily restricts internet access to foreign sites. It also allows for privacy by hiding browsing activities from internet service providers.

Manjunath Bhat, a research director at Gartner, told CNBC that a VPN could circumvent government censorship.

"VPN creates a private tunnel between you (the user) and the service you want to consume," Bhat said, explaining that such a connection escapes government censorship, hiding a user's true origin. It also encrypts communications so that users can be confident others aren't reading their information when connected to public internet services.

Data on GreatFire.org, a site that monitors censorship activity in the mainland, showed 167 of the top 1000 domains are blocked in China. Those include YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Instagram among others.

Golden Frog said its VyprVPN service is still accessible in China, despite the app's removal from the App Store. ExpressVPN said users can stay connected to the open internet with the company's apps for Windows, Mac, Android and other platforms.

Apple has recently stepped up business efforts in China. Earlier this month, the company announced the appointment of Isabel Ge Mahe in a new role of vice president and managing director of Greater China to provide leadership and coordination across Apple's China-based team. Apple is also setting up its first data center in the mainland by partnering with a local company, in order to comply with tougher cybersecurity laws in China.

In a blog post, ExpressVPN said it was "disappointed" with Apple's decision. It "represents the most drastic measure the Chinese government has taken to block the use of VPNs to date, and we are troubled to see Apple aiding China's censorship efforts," the post read.

Golden Frog also said in a blog post that it was "extremely disappointed" in Apple's decision. It added, "If Apple views accessibility as a human right, we would hope Apple will likewise recognize internet access as a human right (the UN has even ruled it as such) and would choose human rights over profits."

The move was also criticized by others, including U.S. whistle-blower Edward Snowden in a tweet.

"Earlier this year China's (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) announced that all developers offering VPNs must obtain a license from the government," an Apple spokesperson told CNBC. "We have been required to remove some VPN apps in China that do not meet the new regulations. These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business."

On Tuesday, during Apple's earnings call, CEO Tim Cook added, "We would obviously rather not remove the apps, but like we do in other countries we follow the law wherever we do business. We strongly believe participating in markets and bringing benefits to customers is in the best interest of the folks there and in other countries as well."

Apple's decision to remove the apps comes at a time when businesses and individuals inside the mainland are finding it harder to connect to the so-called open internet outside China via VPN. A business executive told CNBC that connecting through VPN in cities like Hangzhou is becoming far more difficult, as compared to bigger places such as Beijing and Shanghai. People using an international SIM card or apps downloaded from App Stores outside China are still able to use VPNs on the mainland, according to the executive.

Some of the remaining VPN companies that have yet to face Beijing's crackdown could end up collaborating with the authorities, according to Martin Johnson (a pseudonym) from GreatFire.org. He told CNBC that some of those companies may hand over user data when requested and be allowed to operate without restrictions. "Those that protect their users security will be removed."

Johnson added, "Apple is now an integral part of China's censorship apparatus, helping the government expand it's control to a global scale."

To be sure, Apple's removal of those apps is not the first time Beijing's cyber regulators have gone after VPN providers. Recent reports said two popular providers GreenVPN and Haibei VPN stopped their services following a notice from the regulators. In fact, a number of VPN apps are still available on the local App Store as of Monday.

In January, the MIIT embarked on a 14-month campaign to "clean up" China's internet connections by March 31, 2018. In a notice, the ministry said that, while China's internet access service market is facing "a rare opportunity for development," there are also signs of "disorderly development" needing to be rectified.

Among other services, the move also affected VPNs: The Ministry said those connections cannot be created without the approval of the relevant telecommunications authorities.

State-owned news outlet Global Times reported that a spokesperson for MIIT said at a press conference last week that foreign companies or multinational corporations that need to use VPN for business purposes could rent special lines from telecom providers that legally provide such services.

Previously, the Ministry had denied a Bloomberg report that it ordered major telco operators China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom to block individuals' access to all VPNs by February 1, 2018.

Johnson said the authorities would "prefer to divide users such that businesses can continue to access the global internet, while ordinary users can only access the filtered internet."

"The Chinese government does not care at all about freedom of speech, but they do care very much about economic growth and China's economy continues to be very dependent on the outside world. Apple should use this leverage and stand up for the principle. Sadly they don't," he said.

CNBC's Barry Huang contributed to this report.

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Apple removes VPN apps in China as Beijing doubles down on censorship - CNBC

Tech giant Facebook has issued an apology to a Black activist and writer who claims the social media site suspended her account for bringing attention to racism, reports USA Today.

According to the outlet, Ijeoma Oluos visit to Cracker Barrel with her two children sparked the controversy. During her visit, she jokingly tweeted At Cracker Barrel 4 the 1st time. Looking at the sea of white folk in cowboy hats & wondering will they let my black ass walk out of here?'

Her tweet prompted several racist attacks on both Twitter and Facebook. Twitter swiftly removed the hateful posts and suspended the accounts associated with them, the outlet reports. After Oluo posted images of the derogatory tweets on her Facebook page, her account was suspended.

I write and speak about race in America because I already see this hate every day, Oluo wrote, according to USA Today. Its the complicity of one of the few platforms that people of color have to speak out about this hate that gets me.

Facebook issued a statement extending an apology to Oluo; claiming that suspending her account was a mistake and that they are working on ways to maneuver through these important issues. According to the outlet, an apology wasnt enough for Oluo who claims that her online incident wasnt isolated and that shes witnessed other Black activists have their accounts suspended for calling out racism.

The only reason my ban was reversed was because of the outrage it generated, but so many other marginalized people in similar situations are simply forced out, she said.

The censorship of Blacks has been an ongoing issue on the social platform. USA Today reports that civil rights groups have called out Facebook for being racially biased with their targeting and removing posts and temporarily suspending the accounts of Black activists like Shaun King.

According to the outlet, the social networking site removes thousands of posts that evoke hate each week.

SOURCE: USA Today

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Facebook Apologizes To Black Activist For Censorship - News One

Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc.David Paul MorrisBloomberg via Getty Images

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been a staunch advocate for civil rights, and even keeps a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. in his office. So it's probably not surprising that Cook is a little defensive about a recent decision by Apple to go along with a repressive computer policy in China.

In recent days, Apple pulled a number of apps from its app store in China that could be used to circumvent China's Internet censorship laws. Known as virtual private network, or VPN, apps, the programs let iPhone and iPad users mask their origins from the "Great Firewall of China" and thereby access sites banned by the government and better shield their communications from surveillance.

On Tuesday, Cook said Apple had no choice but to remove the VPN apps.

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"We would obviously rather not remove the apps, but like we do in other countries, we follow the law wherever we do business," Cook said on a call with analysts to discuss quarterly financial results. "We strongly believe in participating in markets and bringing benefits to customers is the best interest of the folks there and in other countries as well."

In a column published earlier on Tuesday, New York Times tech columnist Farhad Manjoo called out Apple for caving to the Chinese censorship demands. Conceding that Apple was probably forced to remove the VPN apps, Manjoo concluded that "Apples quiet capitulation to tightening censorship in one of its largest markets is still a dangerous precedent."

Cook also went on to explain why he thought the situation in China was quite different from the standoff between Apple and the FBI last year over decrypting information on an iPhone used by a terrorist in San Bernardino.

"Some folks have tried to link it to the U.S. situation last yearthey're very different," Cook said on the analyst call. "In the case of the U.S., the law in the U.S. supported us. It was very clear. In the case of China, the law is very clear there."

But Apple ( aapl ) did state its point of view in China "in the appropriate way," Cook added. That has not, at least so far, included any public criticism of the Chinese demand, or even more drastically, pulling out the country in protest.

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Apple CEO Cook Defends Move to Censor Chinese Apps - Fortune