India bans Tik Tok, Mi Community, Shareit and other Chinese apps

Digital strike as the newspapers talk about it, India Government has banned 59 Chinese mobile apps. Among the banned Chinese mobile apps include the immense popular video-sharing social network Tik Tok, file sharing apps Shareit and Xender, the file manager app ES File Explorer and mobile browser UC Browser.

An unlikely company that got into the crossfire seems to be Xiaomi, whose Mi Community app and Mi Video Call app are now banned.

For India Government, the Ministry of Information Technology has invoked 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 under section 69A. Also taking into account the emergent nature of threats, the Ministry has decided to ban 59 Chinese apps in India. These apps are termed as prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.

According to the official press statement, the IT Ministry has received numerous complaints regarding these apps. These apps are found to be stealing and surreptitiously transmitting India users data to servers outside of India (mainly to China) without any user consent. Also, these apps are found to be mining and profiling Indian users data, thus affecting national security and defence of India.

“The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures,” according to a press statement from Ministry of Electronics and IT.

In addition to all this, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs has also recommended banning these Chinese apps. The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), the nodal agency that deals with cybersecurity threats to India have also received concerns from users regarding the security of data and breach of privacy by these mobile apps.

“There has been a strong chorus in the public space to take strict action against Apps that harm India’s sovereignty as well as the privacy of our citizens,” as per the press statement from Ministry of Electronics and IT.

Which all Chinese apps are banned?

Indian Government has banned the usage of 59 Chinese mobile apps by its citizens that pose a threat to sovereignty and integrity of India. Both Android (Google Play) and iOS (Apple Store) version of these mobile apps, along with their website and the mobile website would be banned in the country.

Some of the notable apps in the ban list include: Tik Tok, Shareit, UC Browser, Newsdog, Parallel Space, ES File Explorer, Xender, Mi Community and Mi Video Call – Xiaomi.

The government probably served notice to Google and Apple to make these banned 59 Chinese mobile apps inaccessible to download/update from Google Play Store and Apple Store. Also, Indian telecom operators and internet service providers would soon block these companies websites in India.