India adds 47 more Chinese apps to `banned’ list
27 Jul 2020
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The government on Friday banned 47 more Chinese apps, after its ban of 59 Chinese origin apps in June-end. These 47 apps were acting as clones of the 59 Chinese apps that were banned earlier.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) has prepared a list of 250 apps of which 47 have been alleged to be sharing data with the Chinese agencies, Times Now reports.
The development comes just days after the Indian government directed the makers of the banned 59 apps of Chinese origin to strictly comply with the ban order. The government said those violating the order would face serious action.
Through its order issued on 29 June, the government had banned 59 apps with Chinese links, stating that these were prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity and security of the country.
The banned apps included popular ones like TikTok, CamScanner, SHAREit and UC Browser.
MeiTY has confirmed that the apps in the latest ban list are clones/variants of the already banned 59 apps like Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, SHAREit Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite and VFY Lite and there are no additional apps that have been banned.
A report in The Economic Times said the list of 250 apps prepared by MeiTY includes big names such as PUBG mobile and Resso. Some other top gaming Chinese apps are also reported to be on this list.
Besides, according to the report, apps like Zili by Xiaomi, AliExpress by e-commerce giant Alibaba, and Resso and ULike from TikTok-owner ByteDance are also on the list of apps that may be banned in India.
A PTI report citing sources said the MeiTY has in a written communication to the concerned companies stated that the apps’ continued availability and operation, directly or indirectly, was illegal as well as an offence under the Information Technology Act and other applicable Acts.
The communication further stated that if any banned app was found to be available in India through any means, directly or indirectly, the government would view this as a violation of its orders.
The official communication to the 59 Chinese apps providers also has a set of questions asking them to disclose their operations and how they collect the data of Indian users.
The government communication underlined that apps were banned in exercise of the sovereign powers and Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.
Google and Apple have removed these 59 apps from their respective app stores and telecom operators have halted data transfers for these apps.
