Yahoo leaves China due to “increasingly difficult” environment

Yahoo Inc. announced its decision to leave China due to a “increasingly difficult business and legal environment”.

The company said in a statement that its services were no longer accessible from mainland China as of November 1.

“Recognizing the increasingly difficult business and legal environment in China, Yahoo’s suite of services will no longer be accessible in mainland China as of November 1.“Said the statement.

“Yahoo remains committed to the rights of our users and to a free and open internet. We thank our users for their support”He added

Yahoo is the second major US technology firm to reduce its operations by China in the last week. The professional network LinkedIn Microsoft announced last month that it was shutting down its Chinese site and replacing it with a job forum.

Yahoo’s output coincides with approval in China of a law that restricts the type of information that technology companies can collect and sets standards for storing that information.

Yahoo had previously reduced its operations by China, and in 2015 it closed its Beijing office. The ad, therefore, is basically symbolic since its services, including its website, have long been blocked.

The Chinese authorities maintain strict control of internet companies, to the point that they are forced to censor certain terms that the government considers politically sensitive.

China It has also blocked most social networks and search engines, such as Facebook and Google, although some users in China manage to connect through virtual private networks (known as VPNs).

Yahoo previously offered music and email services on China, but both were suspended a few years ago.