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Govt of India bans TikTok, ShareIt, Mi video call and 56 other Chinese apps [full list]

Last Updated 31 July 2020, 05:20 IST

Following the stand-off between the Indian Army and the China's PLA along the LAC, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Monday, citing country's security concerns, has banned several popular Chinese mobile applications in India.

In view of the emergent nature of threats MeitY has invoked it’s power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act and with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 and has decided to block 59 apps (see the full list below).

It has come to the govt's attention that the apps are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order, the ministry said in a press release.

"At the same time, there have been raging concerns on aspects relating to data security and safeguarding the privacy of 130 crore Indians. It has been noted recently that such concerns also pose a threat to sovereignty and security of our country. The Ministry of Information Technology has 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 unauthorized 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.

In addition to complaints from concerned citizens, Meity has received notifications from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) has also sent an exhaustive recommendation to block these malicious apps.

Taking cognisance of the credible reports, MeitY has found merit in banning apps from both mobile and non-mobile internet platforms, which pose a threat to the sovereignty, integrity, and cybersecurity of India.

Some of the banned Chinese apps include TikTok, which has long been accused of not doing enough to curb circulation of vulgar content, child bullying and nefarious activities. Interestingly, Xiaomi's Mi Video call and Mi Community apps, which are known for communication and software developer community discussion forum, respectively too have come under the scrutiny of the Indian government. The aforementioned Xiaomi apps and others too come pre-installed in thousands of the phones sold in India. If Tarun Pathak, Telecom Analyst at Counterpoint Research is to be believed, it will affect millions of users in India.

"We believe that 1 in 3 smartphone users in India will be impacted by this move. It is still unclear how this will be enforced. May be via ISP or play store is an option but both will come with some sort of loopholes like sideloading apps or so. A lot of these apps were also part of preinstalled apps on some of the leading smartphone players so that will change now. Apart from this if the basis of this order is data security and privacy then we need to see if some of these apps are reallowed to do business if they comply with the order. Having said that this will fuel the ongoing anti china sentiments and users will proactively start deleting apps from their smartphones," Pathak said to Deccan Herald.

However, the infamous PUBG Mobile, which too faced public ire in the last several months due to its addictive gaming nature, has not made it to the list just yet.

"For safety, security, defence, sovereignty & integrity of India and to protect data & privacy of people of India the Government has banned 59 mobile apps. Jai Hind!" said Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology and Communications in India.

Here is the complete list of all the Chinese apps banned in India:

  1. TikTok
  2. Shareit
  3. Kwai
  4. UC Browser
  5. Baidu map
  6. Shein
  7. Clash of Kings
  8. DU battery saver
  9. Helo
  10. Likee
  11. YouCam makeup
  12. Mi Community
  13. CM Browers
  14. Virus Cleaner
  15. APUS Browser
  16. ROMWE
  17. Club Factory
  18. Newsdog
  19. Beutry Plus
  20. WeChat
  21. UC News
  22. QQ Mail
  23. Weibo
  24. Xender
  25. QQ Music
  26. QQ Newsfeed
  27. Bigo Live
  28. SelfieCity
  29. Mail Master
  30. Parallel Space
  31. Mi Video Call – Xiaomi
  32. WeSync
  33. ES File Explorer
  34. Viva Video – QU Video Inc
  35. Meitu
  36. Vigo Video
  37. New Video Status
  38. DU Recorder
  39. Vault- Hide
  40. Cache Cleaner DU App studio
  41. DU Cleaner
  42. DU Browser
  43. Hago Play With New Friends
  44. Cam Scanner
  45. Clean Master – Cheetah Mobile
  46. Wonder Camera
  47. Photo Wonder
  48. QQ Player
  49. We Meet
  50. Sweet Selfie
  51. Baidu Translate
  52. Vmate
  53. QQ International
  54. QQ Security Center
  55. QQ Launcher
  56. U Video
  57. V fly Status Video
  58. Mobile Legends
  59. DU Privacy
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(Published 29 June 2020, 16:04 IST)

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