Govt. of India Acts to “Immediately on Priority Basis” the Banning of 230+ Chinese Mobile Apps
Govt. of India Acts to “Immediately on Priority Basis” the Banning of 230+ Chinese Mobile Apps
The Ministry of Home Affairs has given the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) directives to ban some Chinese apps.
NEW DELHI: On the utmost priority, the authorities moved to restrict around 230 apps, with 138 of them being betting apps and roughly 94 being loan apps. These actions were taken as a top priority and were linked to Chinese connections.
The Home Ministry, which has been monitoring these apps for more than six months, is said to have given the go-ahead for the action, which was started by the Ministry of Electronic and Telecom. “The recent action was taken following due diligence and investigations by the cyber and digital surveillance wings. These apps were under surveillance since last year,” a home ministry official acknowledged.
The Information Technology Act’s Section 69, which gives the government the authority to order the priority interception, monitoring, or decryption of any information via any computer resource for the sake of India’s sovereignty, integrity, or security, is where the case was first brought.
The Home Ministry discovered a significant increase in the number of Chinese “loan apps,” which prompted them to look into the subject early last year. Sources verified that over 270 of these apps were also taken down from the Play Store last year as a result of government interference.
After investigations revealed that, despite the majority of the apps being taken down last year, “the apps in question were being made available on the app stores through third party links,” sources said, the most recent action against the 138 betting and 94 lending apps was taken.
In reality, the issue of these apps’ proliferation and surveillance has come up multiple times during intelligence and law enforcement coordination meetings before the end of 2022. During these sessions, it was discussed how important it is to concentrate on monitoring, surveillance, and raising awareness through capacity building.
The issue was also given top importance after a rise in suicides by people who lost money on gambling apps or took out loans using them, especially in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Over 300 Chinese applications, including WeChat, TikTok, Shareit, Helo, Likee, UC News, Bigo Live, UC Browser, ES File Explorer, and the Mi apps, have been blocked in India since June 2020.
About The Author:
Yogesh Naager is a content marketer who specializes in the cybersecurity and B2B space. Besides writing for the News4Hackers blogs, he also writes for brands including Craw Security, Bytecode Security, and NASSCOM.
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