(Update: While Chinese tech giant Tencent once again bore the brunt of the latest ban, it also announced a fresh infusion of funds, to the tune of $40 million, into India's popular music streaming app Gaana almost simultaneously)
Responding to the fresh Indo-China border tussle, India has banned 118 more mobile applications of Chinese origin. Most notable apps among the freshly banned applications are the highly popular game PUBG Mobile, messaging app WeChat, few APUS apps and ShareSave app from Xiaomi
This new list adds to the list of 59 apps that were banned in the month of June for a similar reason. Back then, TikTok was the most prominent app which was banned by the federal government.
According to a written statement issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology, these apps are banned because they “are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of state and public order.”
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Government Blocks 118 Mobile Apps Which are Prejudicial to Sovereignty and Integrity of India, Defence of India, Security of State and Public Order.Press Release issued by @GoI_MeitY regarding blocking of 118 mobile apps https://t.co/VyahsHR5f0September 2, 2020
The statement further reads that the department has “received many complaints from various sources including several reports about the misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India”.
Though the government chose to invoke its power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act to ban these apps, it is pretty obvious that the Indian government has retaliated on both fronts – on the national border and by impacting the revenue of Chinese companies by banning these applications.
It is not the first time that the India government has taken such a drastic step. After banning the 59 Apps in June, the agencies decided to block 47 more apps that were either copies or lite versions of some of these popular applications. This time, however, both the primary as well as the lite apps have been banned in one go.
(Update)
While Chinese firm Tencent appears to be bearing the brunt of India's ban, with three of its major investments in the app world getting impacted. Besides WeChat, the Chinese company also owned TikTok as well as partnered with the developers of PUBG to launch its mobile version.
However, on another front, Tencent also pumped in $40 million (roughly Rs.300 crore) in a fresh round of funding into India's popular music and podcast streaming platform Gaana. Others to participate in the latest round that was announced today, include Times Internet.
The latest round comes about two years after Tencent had let a $115 million round in Gaana, which completes with the likes of JioSaavn, Spotify, YouTube Music and Wynk. The Chinese tech giant has participated in the latest round through its European entity Tencent Cloud BV.
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