Amber Neely
India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has banned 118 apps — including "PUBG: Mobile" — claiming that they are "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity" of India.
India has banned over 100 apps over burgeoning security threats, including several popular games, search engines, messaging services, and mobile payment platforms.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) invoked Section 69A of the IT act under the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 because of the "emergent nature of threats." The ban, as pointed out by The Week, has likely emerged out of worsening relations between the governments of China and India.
One of the banned apps is "PUBG: Mobile," a Battle Royale game with 119 million installs in India in its first two years. The ban includes other popular apps, such as Baidu, WeChat, and AliPay.
The apps have been accused of engaging in "activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order."
MEITY has pointed out that the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and the Ministry of Home Affairs had also sent an "exhaustive recommendation" for blocking these "malicious" apps. This includes the growing concern that China-made apps may compromise the privacy of India's citizens. The order cited "credible inputs" of data sharing that violates India's IT Act.
Asian News Information has tweeted the full list of apps that are currently included under the ban.
Government blocks 118 mobile apps which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defence of India, Security of State and Public Order: Govt of India
— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2020
PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik, PUBG MOBILE LITE, WeChat Work & WeChat reading are among the banned mobile apps. pic.twitter.com/VWrg3WUnO8
India had previously banned TikTok, a popular video service, only for it to return to the App Store a week later. It was yet again removed from the India App Store following another ban this July.
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11 Comments
What exactly is the threat of these apps to India? Anything worse than Facebook’s and Google’s threat to all of us?
Very good news for Apple to have WeChat banned. In China and India it is a threat to the Apple ecosystem.
India and China have a long running border dispute that has led to some Indian soldiers being killed this year. It's likely that India's aggressiveness with the app banning is linked to that.
I can see why India is doing this - but very dangerous. China retaliates. Those iPhone manufacturing plants will have a hard time making products when Chinese Govt stops the shipment of Chinese made components to India.