Indian Army asks personnel to delete Facebook, TikToK, PUBG, 86 other apps

Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Reddit to be deleted to plug leakage of information

The Indian Army has asked its men to delete 89 mobile apps including Facebook, PUBG and Truecaller from their smartphones in an effort to prevent leakage of information.

Some of the other apps which are on the chopping block for men and women in uniform are Viber, IMO, TikTok, Xender, Tinder, Club Factory, Instagram, SnapChat, Hungama, Tumblr and Reddit.

The instructions from the Army Headquarters came days after the Centre announced banning of 59 mobile apps, mostly Chinese origin, in India.

The apps on the Army radar belong to 18 categories raging from messaging platforms like We Chat, Viber and Nimbuzz to networking places such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Baidu.

This is not the first time for the Army to warn its men about the lure of social media, online platforms and mobile applications. But such an exhaustive list has been drawn up for the first time.

Also read — Ban on Chinese apps a 'digital strike', says Prasad

Seven months ago, Indian Navy banned use of Facebook for all its personnel besides instructing its officers and sailors not to carry smartphones to the bases, dockyard and on-board warships.

The directive from the Naval Headquarters was issued after seven sailors from Visakhapatnam, Mumbai and Karwar and a Mumbai-based hawala operator were nabbed for leaking information to Pakistan after being virtually honey-trapped on social media.

Meanwhile, one of the banned platforms, Truecaller has reacted to the decision. “It is disappointing and saddening to learn that Truecaller is among the list of 89 apps being banned by the Indian Armed Forces for their personnel. Truecaller is an app of Swedish origin that considers India its home,” a spokesperson of the company said in a statement.

“We also have immense respect for the Armed Forces and we stand in solidarity with them and the Indian government. We would like to reiterate that Truecaller remains safe to use, both for our citizens and for our esteemed armed forces personnel. We see no reason for Truecaller to be on this list and will investigate the matter further,” the spokesperson said.