Yahoo Inc. on Tuesday said it has pulled its services from China, citing an “increasingly challenging business and legal environment.” The company said in a statement that its services were no longer accessible from mainland China as of Nov. 1, per the AP. The Wall Street Journal sees the move as mostly "symbolic," given that Yahoo had been shrinking its services in China since 2013. But It's also an illustration of the challenges foreign companies face in the nation. The company's withdrawal coincides with China's Personal Information Protection Law which came into effect on Nov. 1, which curbs what information companies can gather and sets standards for how it must be stored.
Chinese authorities maintain a firm grip on Internet censorship in the country, and require companies operating in China to censor content and keywords deemed politically sensitive or inappropriate. Yahoo added that it “remains committed to the rights of our users and a free and open internet.” China has also blocked most international social media sites and search engines, such as Facebook and Google. Users in China who wish to access these services circumvent the block by using a virtual private network (VPN). Yahoo is the second large US technology firm in recent weeks to reduce its operations in China. Last month, Microsoft’s LinkedIn said it would shutter its Chinese site, replacing it with a jobs board instead.
(More
Yahoo stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
