A day after the blanket ban covering 59 Chinese applications, including that of Tiktok and Shareit, which have had managed to establish a certain market for themselves in the past few years with its millions of users across the country, the Department of Telecom, which is responsible for decisive decisions in the telecommunication and internet sector in the country has asked all the ISPs, (Internet Service Providers) and Telecom companies, inclusive of private and public, to take measures to completely extirpate the presence of these applications without leaving any room for a comeback.
This, of course, would happen when in pursuance to the directive, these companies and service providers block these applications on their network, so that they cannot be accessed by bypassing existing protocols.
The most striking part of the directive is the impact that it is bound to have on smartphone users who wield mobile phones from Chinese companies, like Xiaomi and Vivo, as applications operated and run by these mobile companies, supporting and regulating features on their mobile phones, like Mi Community and Mi Video Calls, meant for the device holders, have also axed.
The order accessed by news organization NDTV, says “The compliance be submitted immediately, failing which shall invite initiation of action under Rule 12 of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009,”.
These developments would be deemed by many as the final nail in the coffin of these apps, especially TikTok, as it went completely offline, soon after the directive was released.
Amidst trying attempts by the banned companies to defend their stance, the scrutiny on them, from all sides continues to progress, in the forward direction.
