Indian Government Bans TikTok and 50+ Chinese Apps

Indian Government Bans TikTok and 50+ Chinese Apps

The Indian government has banned over 50 Chinese-made smartphone apps including popular social title TikTok over concerns they may be stealing user data.



The 59 titles also include Twitter-like platform Weibo and WhatsApp clone WeChat, as well as a range of other browser, camera, news, entertainment and communications apps.



A government statement noted that the decision was taken due to fears that the apps were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of state and public order.”



These concerns were linked to fears over users’ data security and privacy.



“The Ministry of Information Technology 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 unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India,” it said.



Although the concerns may be genuine, the timing appears to be deliberate, coinciding with a period of heightened tensions between the two Asian giants after recent border clashes left 20 Indian soldiers dead.



According to the BBC, India is TikTok’s biggest foreign market with an estimated 120 million users.



However, the app has come in for criticism not only in India. In the US, the Pentagon banned its use by soldiers early this year on security concerns related to its Beijing-based owner ByteDance.



The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has launched an inquiry into whether the user data TikTok collects represents a national security risk. If this becomes a full-bl ..

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