The IT Nerd

India recently banned TikTok as part of an ongoing spat with China where India cites security reasons for the ban. But news out of India indicates that this may not be the end as the Indian government is looking to ban hundreds of Chinese apps citing the same security reasons:

India has drawn up a list of 275 Chinese apps that it will examine for any violation of national security and user privacy, signaling heightened scrutiny and the possibility of more Chinese internet companies being banned in the country, according to people aware of the developments. This follows the high-profile ban of 59 Chinese apps last month, including short video app TikTok, amid simmering geopolitical tensions between the two Asian giants. 

The list, reviewed by ET, includes gaming app PubG, Zili by phonemaker Xiaomi, AliExpress by ecommerce giant Alibaba as well as apps like Resso and ULike from TikTok-owner ByteDance. “The government may ban all, some or none from the list,” said one person cited above. A spokesperson for the union home ministry did not respond to queries from ET on the developments. However, official sources said reviews aimed at identifying more Chinese apps and their funding is underway. “Some of these apps have been red-flagged due to security reasons while others have been listed for violation of data sharing and privacy concerns,” an official explained. This is in addition to examining the alleged flow of data from these apps to China that poses a threat to sovereignty and integrity of India, according to officials who pointed to what they termed as China’s data-sharing norm that requires companies of Chinese-origin to share data with the home country, irrespective of where they operate.

This is going to be interesting to watch because other countries such as the US and the UK are looking to do something similar. So depending on how bad the blow back is from the government of China, that will likely govern if this spreads. As for the privacy issues that these apps may or may not pose, the makers of these apps could make this go away by providing definitive proof that their apps pose no threat. To date they haven’t done that. But the need to if they don’t want to be banned from the biggest markets on the planet.

This entry was posted on July 29, 2020 at 9:59 am and is filed under Commentary with tags India. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.