In the midst of rising tension with China the Indian government has banned 59 apps, including two popular gaming apps, Clash of Kings and Mobile Legends.
In an official notification, the govt said, “The Ministry of Information Technology, invoking it’s power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 and in view of the emergent nature of threats has decided to block 59 apps since in view of the information available they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, the security of the state and public order.”
The government has been mulling the ban for some time now, closely examining the risks involved with using these apps on a per app basis, after red flags were raised by several unnamed sources, which is, intelligence agencies. The main concern seems to be the collection of user data and the unauthorised sending of this data to locations outside of India.In the notification, the ministry said it has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India.
The two Chinese games that are now banned in India are Clash of Kings and Mobile Legends. The latter has over 100 million downloads, with a rating of 4.2 stars, on Google Play Store.
On the other hand, Clash of Kings had achieved 50 million+ downloads and 4.1 stars on the same app. Some of the most-popular apps banned are TikTok, WeChat and UC Browser.
Here’s a complete list of the 59 Chinese apps banned by the Indian government:
