China reminds Google and Facebook to play by the rules if they want access
China has more than 700 hundred million internet users, but if tech companies want a slice of the action, they'll have to abide by the country's tight censorship laws.
The reminder comes from Qi Xiaoxia, director general of the Bureau of International Cooperation at the Cyberspace Administration of China, who spoke at the UN's Internet Governance Forum in Geneva, according to Reuters.
"That's a question maybe in many people’s minds, why Google, why Facebook are not yet working and operating in China ... If they want to come back, we welcome," Qi said.
Google became inaccessible in China in 2010 after it allowed users to access an uncensored version of its search engine, but some of its services could make it over the Great Firewall.
Facebook has been blocked since 2009, but Mark Zuckerberg hasn't been shy about wanting a comeback. Twitter has also been inaccessible in mainland China since 2009, except for Trump.
Of course, that's only possible if these tech companies concede to China's censorship laws, as Apple has done by removing VPN apps from its store, which it hopes will return.
"The condition is that they have to abide by Chinese law and regulations. That is the bottom line. And also that they would not do any harm to Chinese national security and national consumers’ interests," Qi added.
In the last year, China has tightened its grip on certain corners of the internet. Users can no longer able to post comments anonymously on websites, popular messaging platform WhatsApp has been blocked, and local cryptocurrency exchanges were ordered to close.
