Government Bans 118 Chinese Mobile Apps
These include popular Chinese applications such as Baidu, WeChat Business and Alipay
New Delhi, Sep 02: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India 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 118 mobile 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.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside 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.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs has also sent an exhaustive recommendation for blocking these malicious apps.. Likewise, there have been similar bipartisan concerns, flagged by various public representatives, both outside and inside the Parliament of India. 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.
On the basis of these and upon receiving of recent credible inputs that information posted, permissions sought, functionality embedded as well as data harvesting practices of above stated Apps raise serious concerns that these Apps collect and share data in surreptitious manner and compromise personal data and information of users that can have a severe threat to security of the State.
In the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India and security of the State. And using the sovereign powers, the Government of India has decided to block the usage of certain Apps, used in both mobile and non-mobile Internet enabled devices. These apps are listed in the attached appendix.
This move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users. This decision is a targeted move to ensure safety, security and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace.
Some of the applications banned are APUS Launcher Pro, APUS Security, Baidu, Baidu Express Edition, Cut Cut, FaceU – Inspire your Beauty, ShareSave by Xiaomi, CamCard, InNote, Super Clean, WeChat Work, LifeAfter, Pitu, Tencent Weiyun, Cyber Hunter, Knives Out-No rules, just fight!, Dawn of Isles, Ludo World-Ludo Superstar, Chess Rush, PUBG MOBILE, Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade, Art of Conquest: Dark Horizon, AppLock, Alipay, Road of Kings- Endless, VPN for TikTok and Legend: Rising Empire NetEase Games.
