New Delhi, December 8: The mobile application of Tripadvisor is among the 105 apps banned by China under a renewed campaign to "clean up" the internet. The action was taken by the Cyberspace Administration of China - a body assigned to filter out content from the internet that promotes obscenity, pornography, fraud, gambling, violence or prostitution. Indian Govt Bans 43 More Chinese Apps, Desi Twitterati Welcome the Move With Funny Memes and Jokes.

The reason behind the crackdown on the US-based Tripadvisor was not particularly specified. The Massachusetts-headquartered company drew frequent visitors from different parts of China who wanted to plan domestic business and vacation trips. The website offered information on places to visit and hotels to book.

According to the Chinese regulator, the 105 apps banned today - most of them being run by local firms - are part of a wider crackdown to remove all websites from the country's virtual space that fall under the "illegal" category.

"The Cyberspace Administration of China will continue to ... strengthen the supervision and inspection of mobile apps' information services, promptly clean up and dispose of illegal mobile applications and application stores, and strive to create a clear cyberspace," the agency said in a statement.

Netizens in China find restricted access to internet, as the country has developed a so-called "Great Firewall" to filter content from the world wide web. Popular social media apps, including the US-based Facebook and Twitter, are already blocked.

The ban on Tripadvisor also comes a amid a bilateral faceoff over the Donald Trump administration's action against TikTok. The US has asked Bytedance, owner of the video-sharing app, to sell its stakes to American companies or risk being completely banned.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 08, 2020 08:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).