The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) of the Indian Government recently decided to further 54 apps which are either of Chinese origin or related to China in any way. This decision was taken owing to the National Security threat. This is not the first time that Chinese apps have been banned in India. Due to the same reasons, in the past too the Indian government has taken the necessary steps in removing a few Chinese apps from being downloaded by the Indian citizens. In order to protect the data, or to protect the people from harm, and even owing to the National security threat. Till date 267 Chinese apps have been banned.
The timeline of the apps being banned in India are:
- The first list was declared on June 29th, 2020, which included 59 apps.
- The second list was declared in August 10th, 2020, which included 47 apps
- The third list was declared on September 1st, 2020, which included 118 apps.
- The fourth list was declared on November 19th, 2020 which included 43 apps.
- The recent fifth list was declared on February 14th, 2022 which included 54 apps to be banned.
The reason given by the Government of India to ban the recent 54 apps was requested to be banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) due to security risks cited under the emergency provisions of Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. As per the Public Statement given, “these 54 apps allegedly obtain various critical permissions and collect sensitive user data. These collected real-time data are being misused and transmitted to servers located in hostile countries. This will enable them to compile huge personal data to mine, collate, analyse and profile by the elements who are hostile to the sovereignty and integrity of India and for activities detrimental to national security. In addition there are other serious concerns as some of these apps can carry out espionage and surveillance activities via camera/mic, accessing for location (GPS) and do malicious network activity similar to previously blocked apps.”
Though time and again the Indian government has banned Chinese apps, the Chinese government has continued to rein in its technology industry and create new apps to be introduced in various countries.
List of recent 54 apps banned by Indian government:
- AppLock
- APUS Security HD (Pad Version)
- Astracraft
- Badlanders
- Barcode Scanner – QR Code Scan
- Beauty Camera – Selfie Camera
- Beauty Camera – Sweet Selfie HD
- CamCard for SalesForce Ent
- Conquer Online
- Conquer Online – MMORPG Game
- CuteU Pro
- CuteU: Match with the world
- Dual Space – 32Bit Support
- Dual Space – 64BitSupport
- Dual Space Lite – Multiple Accounts & Clone App
- Dual Space Pro – 32Bit Support
- Dual Space Pro – Multiple Accounts & App Cloner
- Dual Space Lite – 32Bit Support
- Equalizer – Bass Booster & Volume EQ & Virtualizer
- Equalizer & Bass Booster – Music Volume EQ
- Equalizer Pro – Volume Booster & Bass Booster
- EVE Echoes
- Extraordinary Ones
- FancyU – Video Chat & Meetup
- FancyU pro – Instant Meetup through Video Chat
- FunChat Meet People Around You
- Garena Free Fire – Illuminate
- Isoland 2: Ashes of time lite
- Lica Cam – selfie camera app
- Live Weather & Radar – alerts
- MoonChat: Enjoy video chats
- MP3 Cutter – ringtone maker & audio cutter
- Music player – equalizer & MP3
- Music player – MP3
- Music player – music, MP3 player
- Music plus – MP3 Player
- Nice video baidu
- Notes – colour notepad , notebook
- Onmyoji Arena
- Onmyoji Chess
- Parallel space lite 32 support
- RealU lite – video to live
- RealU – Go live, make friends
- Rise of Kingdoms: lost crusade
- SmallWorld – enjoy groupchat and video chat
- Stick fight – the game mobile
- Tencent Xriver
- Twilight pioneers
- UU Game Booster – network solution for high ping
- Video player media all format
- Viva video editor – snack video maker with music
- Voice recorder & voice changer
- Volume booster – loud speaker & sound booster
- Wink – connect now
