Highlights:
- More than 270 apps on radar by the Indian Government including PUBG
- 59 Chinese apps were recently banned by the Indian Government from the country
- The list also includes Zili by Xiaomi and AliExpress, an online shopping portal by Alibaba
Recently, India banned 59 Chinese apps which included the likes of TikTok, ShareIt, Cam Scanner and now the Indian Government may ban more than 270 other application in the country. Going by the reports, the Indian government will scrutinize close to 275 applications for National Security violations and users’ privacy and if any application is found in a breach it will, most likely, be banned from operating in India by the government.
In June, the Indian Government took a bold step and banned 59 Chinese apps citing threat to national security. The government alleged that the ban of those 59 applications came because they were engaged in activities which were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order.”
Also Read: Responding To The Ban From India, TikTok Distances From Beijing
The latest list includes some household names including PUBG which is backed by Tencent, Zili by Xiaomi and AliExpress which is an online shopping portal by the Alibaba Group. Apps including Resso and ByteDance’s ULike could also be examined by the government for security violations.
A spokesperson from the Union Home Ministry said, “Some of these apps have been red-flagged due to security reasons while others have been listed for violation of data sharing and privacy concerns,”.
There are also 14 apps from Xiaomi and some of the lesser known apps which include
- Capcut
- Yoozoo Global
- FaceU
- Meitu
- LBE Tech
- Perfect Corp
- Sina Corp
- Netease Games
The list also includes Helsinki-based Supercell, which has investments by the Chinese tech companies. Tencent, which backs PUBG, bought a major stake in the gaming company.
A senior government employee, talking to a leading news agency in India, said that the Indian government has formed a pricess for such bans and the concerned Ministry has been asked to come up with a frame of law for the constatnt examination of the applications in the country.
The employee said, “A set of rules or defined procedures may take time but is the correct process to go about it in the future,”.
The report also says that the government will follow the process before banning any application which is on the list. An official from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology or MeitY said that “There is a process involved, there is a committee in place for such ban orders. If there is such an order, then it will act.”
When, last month, India banned 59 Chinese application from operating in the country, there were speculations that the popular gaming app, PUBG, will also be banned, however, that did not happen. In India, there are a lot of PUBG users and as per the data shared by Sensor Tower, PUBG has its biggest userbase in India with the help of around 175 million or 17.5 crore downloads.
