India Bans 47 More Chinese Apps, Around 250 Apps Including PubG Under Scanner According to reports, these 47 apps were operating as clones of the earlier banned 59 apps
By Debarghya Sil •
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A month after banning 59 Chinese Apps, the Indian government on Monday banned 47 China-origin apps, according to reports.
According to an India Today report, these 47 apps were operating as clones of the earlier banned 59 apps. The list of the 47 apps will be released soon by the Indian government.
Reports cited sources informing that the government has also prepared a list of over 250 Chinese apps, including apps linked to Alibaba, for privacy and security violations. This list also includes the famous PlayerUnknown's Battleground popularly known as PUBG game.
According to the media outlet, the list includes some top gaming applications that the government is considering to ban in India. These Chinese apps are believed to share date of Indian users without their knowledge.
The unprecedented ban on 59 Chinese apps took place after a fight between India and Chinese army on the Line of Actual Control near Ladakh. The government banned these apps on June 29 citing they were "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order". The government immediately asked Google and Apple to remove these apps from their app stores for India. The move was hailed all across the country, resulting in some people even boycotting Chinese products such as smartphones.
The move was described as "digital strike' by India's Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. The banning of these apps acted as a boon for Indian app developers as overnight their daily active users (DAU) and download numbers shot up, forcing them to upgrade their backend hardware to handle the overload. One of the apps that were banned earlier was Tiktok which enjoyed a massive 200 million user base in the country. However, the ban has led to Indian players see their downloads go above 10 million.
With the fresh ban, the Indian app developers will further attract more Indian users and bolster their presence.
Reacting to the 59 apps banned by India, the Chinese foreign ministry had said the country is "strongly concerned regarding the decision of the Indian government".
"China is strongly concerned, verifying the situation," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian was quoted as saying by news agency ANI earlier.
