India banned an additional 118 Chinese-owned apps, including the popular game PUBG, on concerns over “stealing” user data and for engaging in activities prejudicial to the country’s “sovereignty and integrity.”
Apart from Tencent’s PUBG, which has its most users in India, the fresh ban includes apps from the stable of Chinese internet giant Baidu and Xiaomi, the biggest seller of smartphones in India. Other banned apps include CamCard Business Card Reader, WeChat Reading and Tencent Weiyun.
ET was the first to report on July 31 that the government had prepared a list of 275 Chinese apps including PUBG which could be banned on concerns over data security. This comes after fresh border tensions between India and China.
Cos on Wait-and-Watch Mode
Other Tencent-owned apps banned are WeChat Work, Pitu and VooV Meeting. Also targeted were Chinese gaming and dating apps, a segment that gained popularity during the Covid-19 led lockdown.
The ban was ordered “in view of information available they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order,” the ministry of electronics and IT said on Wednesday. The order was a follow-up to the ban of 59 Chinese apps in June.
The government said it had received complaints about some mobile apps “stealing and surreptitiously” transmitting user data to servers located outside India.
“The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures,” the ministry said.
The apps were banned by invoking section 69A of the Information Technology Act and provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre of the home ministry had also recommended blocking these malicious apps, it said.
Chinese firms ‘stunned’
A lawyer representing Chinese companies in India, including owners of apps banned on Wednesday, said the move that follows the decision in June has “stunned and shocked” his clients.
“There is no clarity on the status of apps banned earlier. After the companies sent their responses to the ministry, no process has been followed,” the lawyer claimed. “And this seems to come hot on the heels of the incursion on the border two days ago, so this whole app ban strategy seems to be correlated to the border skirmishes.”
“The situation is escalating. It was expected. There is a worry that these bans will move to apps of other countries. My Chinese clients don’t have plans to exit India… They are waiting and watching the situation. Of course, all this is not good news for them,” said another lawyer with Chinese technology companies as clients.
The impact in India will be felt most by PUBG users. India is the game’s largest market in terms of downloads, with more than 175 million installs to date, or 24% of the total, according to app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Globally, the game generated $1.3 billion in 2020, Sensor Tower said in July, with the biggest spenders from China, the US and Japan.
Chinese internet companies have about 300 million unique users in India, indicating that almost two-thirds of smartphone users in the country have downloaded a Chinese app, according to industry estimates. In June, the government banned 59 apps including ByteDance-owned TikTok and Helo along with WeChat, Shareit, UC browser and shopping app Clubfactory. A committee was set up to examine their data practices and the app companies were asked to answer about 70 questions.
The government said it would decide on the interim ban order after reviewing their responses. It’s not clear when the committee will take a final call on this matter.
The government followed up the first ban by blocking an additional 47 apps.
“This app ban has come at a time when no law related to data protection is operational in the country. There is a need to set an example of transparency on the part of the government in order to set a good precedent and ensure that due process is followed,” said Kazim Rizvi, founding director of policy think tank, The Dialogue.
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