Renren Video, a Chinese video sharing platform featuring foreign movies and television programs, was pulled from Apple’s App Store and Android due to copyright issues.

Mainland Chinese users said they were unable to install or update the Renren app on their mobile devices since Sunday. Those who have installed the app found that the movies and TV shows on the platforms were gone.

The app’s “quick view” function, with which users can extract clips of several minutes from movies and TV episodes and share them with other viewers, has also been suspended.

The removal was said to be related to growing complaints from other leading video streaming platforms in China, including iQiyi, Tencent, Youku and Mango TV, recently. Some have urged other operators to respect copyright and stop the unauthorized editing and uploading.

Renren Video said on Sunday it would handle the accounts with serious issues according to the law. The company removed some shows on the same day but has not given a relaunch date.

As the country’s fifth-largest online video platform, Renren Video has around 160 million registered users.

Many users showed their support for the company by leaving comments on the website. One said the happiness was halved after losing access to the videos, while others called for a boycott of those video platforms.

A long-time user surnamed Wang in Shanghai told Apple Daily that he enjoyed the platform due to fewer pop-up ads and quicker updates. Wang said he is willing to pay around 10 to 20 yuan (US$1.56 to US $3.13) a month to watch the videos.

According to Youku statistics on the four leading video-streaming platforms, a total of 5,600 movies and shows had been infringed upon copyright and more than 4.6 million unauthorized short clips have been uploaded online.

Renren Video has been punished several times by Chinese authorities. The last one was in January 2020 when the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it failed to amend according to the required changes.

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