last month, the Indian government banned 59 apps, and yesterday, it banned 47 more Chinese apps that were clones of the previously banned ones.
The ban of TikTok and others is coming after a security review by the Ministry of Telecom and takes the total number of mobile applications blocked to 106.
READ ALSO: TikTok App halts Hong Kong access
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,” News18 reported.
The new apps include clones and different versions of some of the original apps, official sources said.
About a month ago, Chinese apps such as TikTok, UC Browser, Helo, Likee, Shareit, Mi Community, WeChat, and CamScanner were banned by the central government for “engaging in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of a state and public order”.
The latest list reportedly includes Tencent-backed gaming app PUBG, AliExpress, ByteDance’s Resso and ULike, another gaming app Ludo World and Xiaomi’s Zili, media reports suggested.
Other apps from Meitu, LBE Tech, Perfect Corp, Sina Corp, Netease Games, Yoozoo Global, among others are also under the scanner. The apps being reviewed are accused of sharing data with Chinese agencies.
Among other reasons, the government is concerned about the data collection and data harvesting practices of these apps and feels that these processes may be prejudicial to the security of the country.
The list of these 47 banned apps will be released soon.
In May, Google banned over 50 apps due to concerns that they are causing Android users to be flooded with adverts.
The ban came after French cyber-security firm Evina reported its findings to Google in May.
Evina discovered that the apps could infiltrate devices by offering genuine functionality.
