Yahoo Ending Operations In China Due To ‘Challenging’ Environment

Tech giant Yahoo will no longer conduct any business in China due to a challenging regulatory environment, the company announced Tuesday.

“In recognition of the increasingly challenging business and legal environment in China, Yahoo’s suite of services will no longer be accessible from mainland China as of November 1,” a Yahoo spokesman said in a statement, Reuters reported.

Yahoo’s decision to withdraw from the country follows video game developer Epic’s announcement Monday that its popular online game Fortnite would no longer be available in China. The country’s president, Xi Jinping, has cracked down on video games and kids’ use of social media in recent years.

Microsoft-owned job networking site LinkedIn also withdrew from China last month, citing similar regulatory concerns.

“[We’re] facing a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China,” Mohak Shroff, senior vice president of engineering at LinkedIn, wrote in a blog post announcing the move.

LinkedIn was the subject of controversy and congressional scrutiny following its repeated censorship of user profiles in China at the behest of the Chinese government.

Yahoo hinted that it was leaving China in part due to the country’s human rights violations and government control of internet services.

“Yahoo remains committed to the rights of our users and a free and open internet. We thank our users for their support,” the company spokesperson said.

China has sought to rein in its technology and social media companies, passing privacy legislation in August hamstringing its social media platforms’ ability to harvest data on users and target them with advertising. The country also restructured financial technology company Ant Group earlier this year.

Yahoo did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.