China’s Cyberspace Administration (CAC) ordered the country’s app stores to remove taxi-booking app Didi Chuxing after an investigation found it illegally collected customers’ personal information.
The move prevents new users in China from downloading and registering with the app as the probe is carried out and came a few days after Didi Chuxing conducted a listing on the New York Stock Exchange on 30 June.
It raised about US$4.4 billion in the long-awaited IPO, which Reuters said was the largest international listing in the US since Alibaba Group’s in 2014.
In a statement, Didi Chuxing warned the CAC move “may have an adverse impact on its revenue in China”. It pledged to “strive to rectify any problems, improve its risk prevention awareness and technological capabilities”, and “protect users’ privacy and data security”.
Didi Chuxing stated apart from suspending new user registration and blocking the app in China, it maintains normal operations globally.
The order is the government’s latest crackdown on the country’ major tech players for violating privacy laws.
CAC issued warnings to more than 100 apps it found gathering excessive amounts of user data after introducing new rules in May aimed at curbing the practice.
