Grounds for ban on 59 apps ‘ambiguous’

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 30

A day after the government banned 59 Chinese apps, Beijing has asked New Delhi to uphold the legitimate and legal rights of the international investors.

While the Chinese Foreign Ministry withheld further comment till it had verified the facts, the embassy here cited four grounds for seeking a review of the Indian Government’s announcement on Monday banning 59 apps, including TikTok, on grounds of national security due to apprehension of surreptitious data mining and its transfer to servers abroad.

The ban has been widely welcomed on social media.

The move comes after a month-long campaign led by Hindutva organisations for blocking TikTok. National security, however, was not among the reasons for the demand for ban at that time. A statement by TikTok India gives an impression that the ban is provisional and the IT Ministry has asked the company for “clarification”. Nikhil Gandhi, TikTok’s India chief, said the company would not share information with anyone.

The ban comes at an inopportune time for TikTok’s Beijing-based ByteDance, which was planning a massive ramp up of operations in India. But in a bigger blow to China, the campaign against TikTok, including by US senators, has come at a time when the app was emerging as the first example of Chinese soft power in the form of a globally successful social network.

Though the Chinese Foreign Ministry withheld any more comments, its mission here said the grounds for the ban on 59 apps was “ambiguous and far-fetched, grated against the general trend of global trade and e-commerce and was not conducive to consumer interests and market competition in India”. The Chinese Embassy showed concern about the employment prospects of the Indian staff, the interests of Indian users and livelihood of creators and entrepreneur.