Nearly a month after India banned 59 Chinese applications, the government has reportedly banned 47 more Chinese apps, which were clones of the apps that were already banned by the government last month. As per reports quoting sources, these are apps such as TikTok Light, Cam Scanner advance, etc, that cropped up post the ban of the 59 Chinese apps last month. The government is yet to officially announce the ban and disclose the list.
This move also comes amid reports that the government has reportedly now put another 275 Chinese apps under the scanner that it will inspect for violation of national security and privacy of users. According to an Economic Times report, this list includes the likes of PUBG, Alibaba’s Aliexpress, Zili, Resso, ULike, among others. Resso and ULike are apps from ByteDance, which also owns TikTok.
Some of the other apps that have come under the government’s radar include 14 Mi apps by smartphone maker Xiaomi, as well as apps from other Chinese tech companies such as Meitu, LBE Tech, Perfect Corp, Sina Corp, Netease Games and Yoozoo Global. The government is reportedly also looking at companies that have investment from Chinese technology majors.
ET quotes sources as saying that the government may not necessarily ban all these apps but might ban some if privacy violations are found. Some of these apps have reportedly come under the scanner for data sharing and privacy concerns.
On June 30, the government banned 59 Chinese apps, including popular apps such as TikTok, UCBrowser, Shein and Club Factory, saying these apps were engaged in activities which are “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.”
Days after the ban, the government sought details of the beneficial owner, their financial structure, location of data centres, board of directors and the country they are incorporated in. These companies received a questionnaire to address their concerns and prove that they were in compliance with data privacy.
This also comes days after a district court in Gurugram summoned Alibaba group and its founder, Jack Ma, after a former employee approached the court over objections to censorship and fake news on company apps, for which he was allegedly fired.
According to a report in Reuters, court filings showed that the ex-employee, identified as Pushandra Singh Parmar, alleged that Alibaba's subsidiary companies -- UC Browser and UC News, would censor content that could be considered unfavourable to China and also promoted fake news.
The Reuters report adds that Pushandra also included clippings of some posts on the UC News app, stating in his court filing that, "In order to control any news related content to be published against China was automatically/manually rejected by an audit system evolved for this purpose (sic)."
Jack Ma and other company executives have been asked to appear in front of the court, either personally or through a lawyer, by July 29.