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India has permanently blocked 59 Chinese apps including TikTok almost seven months after issuing show-cause notices to ban them following a prolonged border standoff with China.
The government had banned 59 Chinese apps in June last year referring to them as being “prejudicial” to India’s sovereignty, integrity and national security. The list included TikTok, Hello, We Chat, Alibaba’s UC Browser and UC News, Club Factory, Like, Bigo Live, Kwak, Clash of Kings and Cam Scanner besides others.
On September 2, the government had banned 118 more Chinese apps, including PUBG Mobile, and in November, 43 new Chinese apps including popular shopping website AliExpress were blocked over similar privacy concerns.
All the permanently banned apps had already been censured in the Indian internet space as part of the government’s unprecedented action against a total of 267 apps (in various batches) since June-end last year.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, in new notices to the apps last week, has said their answers and clarifications following the ban were found to be inadequate. As a result, the temporary block has now been made permanent.
Official sources said that the companies were served notice around the permanent ban last week on an individual basis.
