Second Digital Strike: Modi-led Government Banned 47 More Chinese Apps

On Jul 27, 2020

New Delhi: A month after banning 59 Chinese applications, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology bans 47 apps which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 Chinese apps that were banned in June. These banned clones include Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, SHAREit Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite and VFY Lite.

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology bans 47 apps which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 Chinese apps that were banned in June. These banned clones include Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, SHAREit Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite and VFY Lite. pic.twitter.com/oWHmAmoWlr
— ANI (@ANI) July 27, 2020

Besides, the government is also planning to put a ban on 250 more apps including PubG, Ali Express or etc. Sources have said that the government is examining the list of over 250 Chinese apps that are under scanner for violation of national security and user privacy.

The Chinese applications that have come under the scanner of the government include Alibaba, PUBG, Tencent, Xiaomi, ByteDance and others. A few days back, China had raised the app ban issue during a bilateral meeting with New Delhi. During the meetin. the Indian side made it very clear to the Chinese that the action was taken in view of the security issues and it did not want the data-related to its citizens to be compromised.

Last month, India had banned 59 Chinese mobile applications including the widely-used social media platforms such as TikTok, WeChat, and Helo within view of the threat to the nation’s sovereignty and security. The majority of the apps banned in the June 29 order were red-flagged by intelligence agencies over concerns that they were collecting user data and possibly also sending them “outside”.

After the ban, the Chinese foreign ministry had reacted to the ban saying that it was India’s duty to protect the legal rights of international investors.