59 Chinese apps banned in India: The Indian Government’s Ministry of Electronics & IT in a press release today has announced that “Government Bans 59 mobile apps which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”. The IT Ministry had banned 59 Chinese-owned mobile applications which includes TikTok, WeChat, UC Browser, ShareIt etc. The complete list of Chinese App Banned in India is given below.
The IT Ministry has given a press release on pib.gov.in regarding the official ban on 59 mobile apps in India stating them to be “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”. The following is the official message from the press release:
“The Ministry of Information Technology, invoking it’s power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 and in view of the emergent nature of threats has decided to block 59 apps ( see Appendix) since in view of information available they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.”
With the ongoing India-China border tension, the Indian government has decided to completely ban the above listed 59 Chinese-owned app. As of now it is unclear how this app-ban will be implemented by the government of India. These were among most popular apps used and TikTok alone had over a billion downloads on Google’s Play Store, and Shein and Club Factory both had over 100 million downloads. China’s Digital Silk Route ambitions have been hit with a major blow with this action by Indian government.