The Indian government has decided to ban 54 Chinese apps that threaten India’s security. These include many apps like Beauty Camera-Selfie Camera, Equalizer and Bass Booster. These regulations have been imposed referring to threats to the security, sovereignty and integrity of India. The new ban also covers previously banned apps but has reappeared as clones.
This is the first time that apps are banned by the government in 2022 after a total of 270 apps were banned since 2020. These apps have been banned under Section 69A of the IT Act.
However, according to the report, the new list of banned apps mostly includes the clones of apps that were already banned in India from 2020. With 50 more banned apps, the total list of apps that are banned by India attains to be 320.
Earlier, the Indian government had banned many popular apps including Tiktok and PUBG Mobile. While PUBG Mobile somehow made a comeback in India, Crafton set up a new office and broke ties with its Chinese partners, TikTok has not been so lucky and is banned in the country.
In the year 2020, when the tension between India and China on the LAC in Ladakh was at its peak, 59 Chinese apps including Tiktok were first banned. India had banned popular apps like Tiktok, UC Browser, Share It, Hello, Likee, We Chat, Beauty Plus. After this, the government banned 47 mobile apps, most of which were either clone of already banned apps or were similar to them.