Following the stand-off between the Indian Army and the China's PLA along the LAC, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Monday, citing country's security concerns, has banned several popular Chinese mobile applications in India.
In view of the emergent nature of threats MeitY has invoked it’s power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act and with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 and has decided to block 59 apps (see the full list below).
It has come to the govt's attention that the apps are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order, the ministry said in a press release.
"At the same time, there have been raging concerns on aspects relating to data security and safeguarding the privacy of 130 crore Indians. It has been noted recently that such concerns also pose a threat to sovereignty and security of our country. The Ministry of Information Technology has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India. The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures," the statement said.
In addition to complaints from concerned citizens, Meity has received notifications from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) has also sent an exhaustive recommendation to block these malicious apps.
Taking cognisance of the credible reports, MeitY has found merit in banning apps from both mobile and non-mobile internet platforms, which pose a threat to the sovereignty, integrity, and cybersecurity of India.
Some of the banned Chinese apps include TikTok, which has long been accused of not doing enough to curb circulation of vulgar content, child bullying and nefarious activities. Interestingly, Xiaomi's Mi Video call and Mi Community apps, which are known for communication and software developer community discussion forum, respectively too have come under the scrutiny of the Indian government. The aforementioned Xiaomi apps and others too come pre-installed in thousands of the phones sold in India. If Tarun Pathak, Telecom Analyst at Counterpoint Research is to be believed, it will affect millions of users in India.
"We believe that 1 in 3 smartphone users in India will be impacted by this move. It is still unclear how this will be enforced. May be via ISP or play store is an option but both will come with some sort of loopholes like sideloading apps or so. A lot of these apps were also part of preinstalled apps on some of the leading smartphone players so that will change now. Apart from this if the basis of this order is data security and privacy then we need to see if some of these apps are reallowed to do business if they comply with the order. Having said that this will fuel the ongoing anti china sentiments and users will proactively start deleting apps from their smartphones," Pathak said to Deccan Herald.
However, the infamous PUBG Mobile, which too faced public ire in the last several months due to its addictive gaming nature, has not made it to the list just yet.
"For safety, security, defence, sovereignty & integrity of India and to protect data & privacy of people of India the Government has banned 59 mobile apps. Jai Hind!" said Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology and Communications in India.
Here is the complete list of all the Chinese apps banned in India:
- TikTok
- Shareit
- Kwai
- UC Browser
- Baidu map
- Shein
- Clash of Kings
- DU battery saver
- Helo
- Likee
- YouCam makeup
- Mi Community
- CM Browers
- Virus Cleaner
- APUS Browser
- ROMWE
- Club Factory
- Newsdog
- Beutry Plus
- UC News
- QQ Mail
- Xender
- QQ Music
- QQ Newsfeed
- Bigo Live
- SelfieCity
- Mail Master
- Parallel Space
- Mi Video Call – Xiaomi
- WeSync
- ES File Explorer
- Viva Video – QU Video Inc
- Meitu
- Vigo Video
- New Video Status
- DU Recorder
- Vault- Hide
- Cache Cleaner DU App studio
- DU Cleaner
- DU Browser
- Hago Play With New Friends
- Cam Scanner
- Clean Master – Cheetah Mobile
- Wonder Camera
- Photo Wonder
- QQ Player
- We Meet
- Sweet Selfie
- Baidu Translate
- Vmate
- QQ International
- QQ Security Center
- QQ Launcher
- U Video
- V fly Status Video
- Mobile Legends
- DU Privacy