Apple has been forced to remove Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp and Threads from its China App Store following an order from the country’s Internet regulator, which said the services pose security risks.

The move comes as the US Congress prepares for a Saturday vote on a bill to ban China’s ByteDance-owned short video app TikTok if it is not divested to a non-Chinese owner.

“The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns. We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree,” Apple has said in a statement.

WhatsApp has more than 2 billion monthly active users globally. Threads, another app from Meta, was the fourth most downloaded service in app stores globally in December, according to Appfigures.

Chinese users had previously been able to access some major western social media platforms through domestic app stores even though these were officially blocked.

Now that Apple has been forced to remove the apps, it will do away with the loophole but users can still download the apps from stores in other countries and use them via virtual private networks.

In August, China had asked all mobile app developers to register with the government by the end of March.

The ministry of industry and information technology will look at the filings from April to June, before taking action.

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg tried to win over the Chinese government a decade ago by learning to speak Mandarin to Chinese President Xi Jinping and going on a jog through Beijing.

It was done to reverse a Chinese ban on Facebook but the company was unable to get permission to operate locally. At the moment, another Meta communications platform, Messenger, continues to be available on the App Store in China, as are the Facebook and Instagram apps.

The politically-charged relationship between the US and China is also pushing Apple to divert its supply chain partially to other countries.