The Apple News app has been blocked in China following pressure to censor content.

The Apple News app for iPhone and iPad is powered by Apple News Format, which provides a digital publishing format for publishers to create different layouts.

It displays a list of selected articles based on a user’s preferred media through a visually rich layout like that of a magazine.

Instead of media content, Chinese customers were greeted with a message saying: "Can’t refresh right now. News isn’t supported in your current region."

Despite China becoming Apple’s second-largest source of revenue after the US, the tough rules imposed by the government is making things difficult for the iPhone makers and other tech giants.

Companies are required to censor content which does not comply with the regulation of the Chinese government.

If a company fails to do that, then they run into a risk of being cut off by the Great Firewall of China, which regulates the internet in Mainland China.

Companies like Facebook and Twitter are already blocked in the country as well as bbc.co.uk, Flickr, Bloomberg and New York Times.