After India banned 59 Chinese apps, including Bytedance’s TikTok, A
libaba’s UC Browser, among others, citing security concerns, 275 more apps are under the government’s radar.
Government officials said that a ban on apps has not been finalized and there is a particular process that has to be followed to implement the ban.
The Economic Times was the first to report development, stating that the government has drawn up a list of 275 Chinese apps and will see if there is any violation in terms of national security and user privacy. Tencent-backed PubG, Alibaba-owned Ali Express, phone maker Xiaomi, music streaming app Reso, owned by ByteDance among others are a part of the list of apps that could be banned by the government. “The government may ban all, some or none from the list,” the report said.
The Union electronics and information technology ministry had 29 June in an interim order said that the apps were engaged in activities that are ‘prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order’. Following this, the ministry sent a list of 79 questions to these banned apps and gave them three-weeks’ time to respond, failing which will lead to their permanent ban.
The development came against the backdrop of rising tensions between India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), where 20 Indian troops were killed in a violent face-off with Chinese troops in the Galwan area of Ladakh earlier this month.
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