Tech giant Yahoo Inc. has made an announcement that it has pulled out its services from China. The company cites an increasingly challenging business and legal environment. The statement from the company informed that its services are no longer available from mainland China from November 1, 2021.
The statement from Yahoo Inc. added that it constantly met with the increasingly challenging business and legal environment in the country and that its services are no longer accessible from mainland China. The withdrawal by Yahoo came along with the Personal Information Protection Law of China that came to effect from November 1, 2021. As per the new law it restricts the companies as to which can gather and also suggests standards as to how it can be stored. China and its authorities have always been strict on maintaining a grip on the internet censorship in the country. It required the companies that are operating in China to censor the content and keywords that are considered as inappropriate or politically sensitive.
Yahoo has said that despite its withdrawal, it will continue to remain committed towards the rights of the users along with free and open internet. The company had earlier tried to downsize its operations in the Asian country. It was in 2015 when it had shut down its operations in Beijing. But its withdrawal from the country completely has become a big symbol as at least some of the services by Yahoo like the web portal have already been blocked.
On the other hand China has already blocked majority of the international social media sites and search engines including Google and Facebook. People in China who wish to use these banned services, will have to go through the block with the help of a virtual private network. Yahoo had earlier operated an email and music service in China but both of them were stopped early 2010s. The company is the second largest U.S. Technology firm in recent times due to its reduced operations in China.
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