India Blocks 43 Chinese Apps Over Increasing Cybersecurity Concerns

The series of banning is only the latest move of blockings that India has made as part of its national security protection from mobile applications, which originated from its northern neighbor, China.

The Government of India, also known as GoI, shared that its goal in this series of banning is to protect the sovereignty and integrity of India and safeguard its field of cybersecurity, The New Indian Express reported.

India's IT ministry stated that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India issued an order under section 69A of the Information technology Act that stated the blocking access to 43 mobile apps.

The Act also included that this action taken was based on the inputs regarding these apps for engaging in prejudicial activities to India's sovereignty and integrity, defense of India, state's security, and public order.

The latest order, just like the earlier ones, came in amidst the growing border tensions between the Chinese and Indian forces.

Earlier this year, the Government of India blocked access to 59 mobile apps on June 29, 2020, which included the popular video application 'Tiktok,' and on September 2 also this year, the GoI extended the ban to an additional 118 apps, with Tencent's game PubG included on the list.

The move made by the Indian Government was welcomed by the country's Indian app developers and cybersecurity experts.

Co-founder and MD of SafeHouse Technologies, Aditya Narang, shared that it takes several intrusive and security-sensitive permissions, which the app user does not understand but ends up agreeing to, The Times of India reported.

Narang also added that as the threat in secure user information continuously increases, users must ensure that their mobile phones are secured, protected, and encrypted.

Founder and MD of Graphitto Labs, Kapil Jain, emphasized that the banning of Jack Ma's AliExpress is a major dent in Chinese aspiration to exploit the Indian e-commerce market and simultaneously prompts the Indian e-commerce companies to offer better applications and competitive promos.

Also blocked along with TikTok were 59 other mobile applications, including several dating apps such as WeDate, Chinese Social, TrulyChinese, ChinaLove, DateMyAge, FlirtWish, and Guys Only Dating.