Federal authorities unveiled sweeping charges against Huawei in January for allegedly stealing technology and violating US sanctions on Iran. AFP/WANG ZHAO
The trade war between the United States and China has dealt Huawei another blow after Facebook’s announcement on Friday that it would no longer allow the company to pre-install the Facebook app on its phones.
According to Reuters, that includes Whatsapp and Instagram which are now owned by Facebook.
People who already have Huawei handsets can keep using the apps and will continue receiving updates.
This is due to the White House’s recent ban that prevents American technology firms from supplying technology to Huawei citing the reason that the company may collude with Chinese spies and is, therefore, a risk to US national security.
Huawei has since denied these allegations.
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Google was the first company to comply with the ban after it announced that it would stop allowing Huawei access to its Android operating system (OS) for its handsets.
The Chinese tech company has since announced that it had been working on its own operating system all along which will henceforth be used in place of the Android OS.
According to Business Insider, this will only affect South African users once Huawei phones currently in stock, still in stores, and already shipped to SA run out.
This should not be a train smash, however, because even though Huawei may not install Whatsapp or Instagram on its phones, South African consumers still have the right to do so once they have purchased a handset.
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