Indian government bans 59 Chinese apps including popular apps like TikTok, Shareit and Cam Scanner

by Mohan Ram
June 30, 202013 minutes

Recently, the relationship between India and China is not so smooth, and netizens are constantly trending ban China products related hashtags in social media. In this uncertain situation, our Indian government on Monday issued a notice to ban 59 Chinese apps due to security issues. This list includes some of the popular apps like TikTok, Helo, WeChat, Cam Scanner, Mi Community, Shareit, and others.

Ministry of Information technology, in their official notice, states that these apps were collecting excessive user data and storing them in remote servers outside India. The Ministry of Information technology has also received several complaints from various sources about the security breaches in these apps.

TikTok, in its official statement, states that users' privacy is their utmost priority, and they will never share users' information with foreign governments, including the Chinese government. TikTok is expected to meet concern Government officials to clarify on this issue. TikTok was already banned in India by Madras High Court for having absurd contents on their platform, but they were reinstated back in few days. Other affected apps were also not so pleased with the government's latest move.

pic.twitter.com/0DZQ3Ucqcl
— TikTok India (@TikTok_IN) June 30, 2020

TikTok and helo were removed from App Store and Playstore, and it is expected that other apps will also be removed from the App platforms very soon. If you have installed any of these apps in your smartphones, you can continue using it, but these apps will not be available for fresher downloads in the future.

Chinese apps banned by the Indian Government

TikTok, Shareit, Kwai, UC Browser, Baidu map, Shein, Clash of Kings, DU battery saver, Helo, Likee, YouCam makeup, Mi Community, CM Brower, Virus Cleaner, APUS Browser, ROMWE, Club Factory, Newsdog, Beutry Plus, WeChat, UC News, QQ Mail, Weibo, Xender, QQ Music, QQ Newsfeed, Bigo Live, SelfieCity, Mail Master, Parallel Space, Mi Video Call – Xiaomi, WeSync, ES Explorer, Viva Video – QU Video Inc, Meitu, Vigo Video, New Video Status, DU Recorder, Vault-Hide, Cache Cleaner DU App studio, DU Cleaner, DU Browser, Hago Play With New Friend, Cam Scanner, Clean Master – Cheetah Mobile, Wonder Camera, Photo Wonder, QQ Player, We Meet, Sweet Selfie, Baidu Translate, Vmate, QQ International, QQ Security Center, QQ Launcher, U Video, V fly Status Video, Mobile Legends, DU Privacy

Why PUBG mobile was not banned in India?

Many people were wondering why PUBG was exempted from the list, and netizens started to trend #BanPUBG on twitter. But, when we dig further about the origin of PUBG, the popular multiplayer battle royale game was developed by a South Korean company Bluehole. After the popularization of the desktop version of the game Tencent, a Chinese multinational conglomerate acquired a 10% stake in Bluehole and developed a mobile version of the popular game. PUBG mobile is developed by Tencent, a Chinese company, but the original game was originated from South Korea. Not to deny that the game has a strong Chinese influence and connection, but the origin of the game might have saved it from getting banned in India.