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BEIJING: The Chinese cyber-watchdog has announced the removal of nearly 8,000 "malicious" mobile apps, as regulators redouble their efforts to boost the country's internet control.
The Chinese Cyberspace Administration (CAC) said in a statement that it had ordered telecom operators to close the services of 7,873 applications after discovering that they had overloaded and defrauded users, as well as stolen information.
She launched the campaign in September with other Chinese ministries to target "malicious mobile apps that violate user rights," the agency said.
Among the applications targeted by the agency was a Chinese version of "Fruit Ninja", which resulted in economic losses for users by encouraging them to subscribe to unwanted pay services, the agency said. Three games called "Fruit Ninja" have been registered with the publishing regulator in China, and it has not been determined which one has been deleted by the CAC.
A game of the same name had already been launched by iDreamSky and distributed by Tencent in 2013. However, it was then removed from all channels in 2016, according to iDreamSky.
Other games, such as "Bathroom Goddess" and "Naughty Housemaid", developed and published by other companies, involve "online thugging activities" such as theft of information, the spam and forced downloads.
The Chinese video game market, the largest in the world, has been under strict scrutiny since last year, when the authorities stopped approving new titles for almost a year. It has recently resumed approvals but industry leaders, Tencent and NetEase, have not yet received them.
The political control of the Internet has also tightened under President Xi Jinping, an effort that has accelerated since 2016, as the ruling Communist Party sought to crack down on dissent on social media.
Reuters
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