You might have heard or read, again and again, that the Govt. of India has banned some apps.
What is this? What happens when an app is banned? Why is this done?
Let’s find out.
What is the history of app ban in India?
The story started on 29th June 2020. The Govt. of India banned 59 Chinese apps in India.
These apps were banned under Section 69 (A) of the IT Act, India.
The government thought that these apps were harmful for the sovereignty of India.
Among the apps that were banned was the hugely popular Tiktok. Tiktok allowed users to create short videos of any kind and release them all over. There were many people who were ‘TikTok stars’ – people who became famous because of their TikTok videos.
For TikTok also, India was the second largest market after China, its home country.
On June 16th, India had had a territorial dispute with China at Galwan valley, in Ladakh. Both sides were talking to each other to resolve the issue.
However, the apps simply changed their name and entered India under other names. Clones of the banned apps appeared soon.
So, in the last week of July, the government banned 47 more apps, which were, according to the government, clones or copies of the earlier apps and doing the same damage as the apps banned earlier.
On September 1st, as many as 118 more apps were banned. These included the very popular multi player online game called PUB G (Player Unknown’s Battle Ground) .
The most recent tranche of bans was on November 24th. This time, 43 more apps were banned. 4 of these were apps of Alibaba group. 5 were gaming apps. There was a popular card scanning app, etc.
While the apps banned so far were largely Chinese, in the recent lot, some Hong Kong based apps were also removed.
This makes the total number of apps banned 267 so far.
The issue at Doklam is still unresolved. During this time, China has also had border conflicts with Nepal and Bhutan.
So, is border conflict the reason for banning apps?
Chinese apps and telecom companies have often been accused of stealing data. Huawei has been blocked from all US military and government procurement after it was suspected that Huawei equipment was creating a spying backdoor.
Zoom, a company started by a Chinese American founder, also faced issues because it was found that the data was routed through Chinese servers without the user’s permission.
China is a black box. Even though the Coronavirus has originated there, no one, not even the WHO, has been allowed to visit and check the origin of the virus, or even to see how China controlled its spread so effectively.
India suspected that China could be using Indian data to spy or create security risks for India. This appears to be the main reason why these apps were banned. If you notice the list of permissions that these apps ask for, they are far more than what will be needed for the apps to do what they say they do.
What happens when an app is banned?
When an app is banned, the company cannot operate that app in India.
For the user, no data can be exchanged using the app. Meaning, quite simply, that the app stops working.
No new users can download the app from the Apple App store or Google Play store.
The companies whose apps are banned can:
A. Stop doing business in India.
B. Create a second app with same functionality, but different name (called a clone app) – if the government gets to know, it will be banned again.
C. Talk to the government and find out how it can address the concerns of the government.
PUBG, which had a huge Indian fan base, has created a company in India. This company was incorporated on November 21st. The company looks set to launch PUBG in India as an Indian app.