Apple has, on orders from China’s government, removed the social networking apps WhatsApp and Threads from the App Store serving that country. Both applications are owned and administered by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The two applications had already been blocked by Chinese authorities, but still they saw heavy use, mainly from those who accessed them with a virtual private network that masked their internet protocol address and allowed users to sign in as if they were in another country. “We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree” Apple said in a statement to CNN.