India’s Second Digital Strike!! 47 More Chinese apps Banned for Data, Privacy Violations

India has announced a ban of 47 Chinese apps which are mostly the clones of the 59 Chinese apps that banned in June.

According to the sources the 47 apps are the cloned version like (“Tik Tok Light, Helo Lite, ShareIt Lite, Bigo Lite, and VFY Lite and Cam Scanner Advance”) of the previously banned apps. The order was issued on Friday, official notification and the list of the banned apps will be released soon.

According to a Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology official, “The apps were found to be operating despite the ban via these versions. They have been taken down from application stores.”

A report suggests that more than 275 apps were under government radar for possible violations of national security and user privacy. Some top Chinese gaming apps like PUBG found to be on the list.

On June 29 India had banned 59 Chinese apps including popular TikTok, UC Browser, Shareit, Virus Cleaner, UC News, ES File Explorer, and more under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act that refers to Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009.

“The government said these apps were engaged in activities that were prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity, and defence of India.”

The Information Technology Ministry said in a statement that they received complaints from various sources that some apps in Android and iOS platforms stealing user data, “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.”

The move comes today after the Indian government contemplates restricting access to several more Chinese apps and services.

A government press release announcing the ban stated: “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 given the emergent nature of threats has decided to block 59 apps since given information available they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order”.

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