Amid tensions between India and China on the border, several applications have been banned by the Government of India. E-commerce, gaming, social media, browsers, instant messaging, and file-sharing has played a prominent role in the Indian consumer’s lives up until now.
READ| What are the Reasons Behind India-China Border Dispute ?
“… in view of the emergent nature of threats, has decided to block 59 apps … in view of information available they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order,” the government said.
For safety, security, defence, sovereignty & integrity of India and to protect data & privacy of people of India the Government has banned 59 mobile apps.
Jai Hind! 🇮🇳— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) June 29, 2020
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 the following 59 apps has been banned on Monday, 29th June.
READ| India’s Digital Strike on China : Government Bans 59 Chinese Apps including Tik Tok and Share it
Security Breach :
There are concerns about data security and citizen’s privacy as there has been news about not safeguarding them,which poses a threat to the sovereignty and security of India.The IT Ministry said it amassed numerousg rievances, involving misusage of mobile apps for stealing and carrying users’ data in an unauthorised way to servers outside India.
“The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of profound and immediate concern which requires emergency measures,it said.
What next ?
The ban brings with it significant losses for the mobile app industry in China, as India was a vast market for its products.
All these apps have had a massive user base in India for a long time now, and while there are alternatives available to the consumers, the app makers will incur heavy downfall in its user count.
This significantly affects their economy as investors will now want to pull out an of the Chinese app market and invest elsewhere, with a more promising consumer base.
“I want to stress that the Chinese government always asks the Chinese businesses to abide by international rules, local laws and regulations in their business cooperation with foreign countries, ” ZhaoLijian said showing Chinese concern for this ban.
The Indian app makers seem to be very happy with the government’s decision, citing the promise of an upcoming boom in the market for Indian apps.
Some alternatives to the banned apps are:
- Tiktok – Roposo, Sharechat
- CamScanner – Office Lens, Adobe scan
- ShareIt, Xender – Dropbox, Google Drive
- Apus Browser, UC Browser – Google Chrome, Opera, Mozilla Firefox
- UC News – Dailyhunt and Inshorts
- Baidu Maps – MapMyIndia, Google Maps
- ClubFactory, Shein – Myntra, Flipkart, Amazon