Govt bans TikTok, 58 other Chinese apps

‘Step taken to protect data & privacy of people of India’

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 29

The government on Monday banned 59 mobile apps owned by Chinese companies for unauthorised transfer of users’ data to servers outside India.

This emergency measure was required because “elements hostile to national security and defence of India’’ were using the surreptitiously transferred data for profiling that was impinging on national security, said the IT Ministry in a late night statement.

“For safety, security, defence, sovereignty and integrity of India and to protect data & privacy of people of India, the government has banned 59 mobile apps,’’ said IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

The banned apps include the widely popular TikTok, one of whose stars Sonali Phogat was given the Haryana Assembly ticket by the BJP. They also include WeChat called the ‘Whatsapp of China’ and SHAREit, another Chinese app that transfers files including photos, videos, music and contacts. Due to the banning it could not be ascertained whether PM Narendra Modi’s verified account on Weibo, another banned app, has been deleted.

The IT Ministry said it had 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 unauthorised 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 statement said.