The call to ban more Chinese apps has been taken by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), due to security concerns. Some reports state that 275 more Chinese apps including the very beloved gaming app Pubg will also be going under the banned list soon.
Just after a month of taking the daring and critical step of banning 59 Chinese applications, the Indian government has further shown its integrity and grave concern about national security by banning 47 more applications. The list consists mostly the clone versions of the previously banned applications.
The new applications to be banned includes Cam Scanner Advance and lite versions of Helo and ShareIt among others. Some sources have mentioned that the government has drawn up a list of over 250 apps that it may consider banning. This list includes popular gaming app PUBG and Alibaba group’s shopping portal AliExpress.
The ban was brought forth under section 69A of the Information Technology Act and the provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009. This step was taken following rising tensions between China and India.
Anti-China standpoint has been gaining prominence in India in recent months. The strains heightened when more than 20 Indian soldiers were killed in combat in Ladakh last month. TikTok, Club Factory and UC Browser and other applications put together had more than 500 million monthly active users in May, according to one of the top mobile insight firms, Techcrunch.
New Delhi IT ministry is expected to release the full list of apps today.
The IT ministry said that the decision was taken “In view of the information available they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, the security of the state and public order.”
The various government agencies have been constantly working on drawing up rules to outline the profile for applications. Those in violation of the rules could be banned. The measures are aimed at boosting cybersecurity framework and protecting personal and overall data of Indians.
A bevvy Indian startups have rushed to fill the emptied lot left by the ban on popular Chinese services in recent weeks. InMobi Group’s Roposo and Twitter-backed Sharechat have amassed millions of new users this month, but the biggest benefactor of this drastic move has been the one and only Facebook-owned Instagram, which launched its Reels feature earlier this month and saw a 30% increase in its user activity.
source: Ndtv, Techcrunch.