(CP) Hallow may now not be allowed within the EU, Alex Jones, CEO and co-founder of the Christian prayer app, announced on X, resulting from an “over-regulation” targeting all religious apps.
“China shut us down by outright removing us from the App Store. The EU is shutting us down by over-regulation, apparently targeting any religious app, making it effectively inconceivable for us to operate within the EU,” he wrote.
“Honestly pretty heartbreaking — was just talking with the team about constructing out our Polish / French / Italian / German content and teams, but when this is true will likely be essentially inconceivable.”
While details surrounding the EU’s decision remain unclear, some speculate that the region’s strict data privacy laws might be an element.
In 2022, the EU enacted the Digital Services Act, which went into effect in February 2023. The laws mandates that every one platforms operating throughout the EU disclose their user numbers publicly twice a 12 months. Additionally, it restricts platforms from handling sensitive data — comparable to information indicating a user’s religious or philosophical beliefs — without obtaining explicit consent.
Amid the uncertainty, some organizations have advanced to support the app. ADF International, a legal group focused on free speech and spiritual liberty, responded to Jones on X, encouraging him to “DM them with more details,” adding that they “might find a way to assist.”
Since its launch in December 2018, Hallow has been downloaded greater than 22 million times across 150 countries, in keeping with the app’s website. Hallow offers guided prayers, meditations and Bible readings and has partnered with celebrities, including Mark Wahlberg, Jonathan Roumie and Gwen Stefani to further its message.
Roumie previously shared with The Christian Post how his involvement with the app helped his prayer life grow in frequency, intensity and intention.
“It’s concerning the purity of intention behind the prayers. When you earnestly seek God, He meets you where you’re,” he said.
“Ask God, ‘How should I pray?’ Ask the questions, and He will, inevitably, in case your heart is de facto connected to Him, and also you earnestly desire to deepen your prayer life, He will answer you. And He will answer you in probably the most profound ways, in probably the most unexpected ways.”
“God isn’t attempting to hide how you may reach Him,” he said. “There are a myriad of avenues to attach [with] Him. Music is a component of that. Music is a large inroad to people’s prayer life and spiritual life. […] Everyone’s got a method that speaks to them greater than one other route. And I believe it’s only a matter of attempting to work out what that’s and starting with the query.”
Wahlberg also opened up about his involvement with the app, telling CP: “[Prayer] has been a giant a part of the best way I start my day for many years now. […] It helps me get through every thing, especially to remind me of what I’m attempting to do on a each day basis. I’m away from home, I miss my family, so it’s got to start out with gratitude. And then also, the guidance and the reminder to proceed to do the things that He wants me to do and the trail that He wants me to take, because I’ll at all times have a plan, and He changes that very often.”
The news of Hallow’s potential banning comes as Europe continues to experience a decline in religious affiliation and an uptick in persecution.
According to data released by the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics that 12 months, lower than half of the population identifies as Christian for the primary time because the country’s first census in 1801.
The data showed that only 46.2% — or 27.5 million of the U.K.’s greater than 67 million people — say they’re Christian. In the 2011 census, 59.3% of the population — or 33.3 million people — described themselves as Christian.
Additionally, a 2024 study found that greater than half of Christians within the U.K. claim to have experienced hostility and mock for his or her faith.
The study, compiled by the nonprofit Voice for Justice UK (VfJUK), claimed the country has exhibited “a number of the highest levels of intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe,” which researchers attributed to hate speech laws which have led to a prevalence of “harassment, self-censorship, direct and indirect discrimination.”
Anti-Christian hate crimes in Europe also reached a complete of two,444 incidents in 2023, in keeping with a report that compiled data from police and civil society sources across 35 European countries. The statistics include 232 personal attacks on Christians, starting from harassment and threats to physical violence.
At least 1,230 anti-Christian hate crimes were allegedly committed by 10 of the European governments in 2023, a rise from 1,029 in 2022.
