India bans TikTok, CamScanner, WeChat and 56 more popular Chinese apps in huge purge

India has been attempting to reduce its reliance on trade with China for the past few years, primarily with the government’s Made in India program. These efforts have escalated over the past few weeks, as India and China have been engaged in border skirmishes along the Galwan Valley, and now the India government is outright banning some Chinese smartphone applications.

“In view of the emergent nature of threats,” a government press release said, “[the government] has decided to block 59 apps since in view of information available they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.” No evidence was presented that the applications were spying on users on behalf of the Chinese government, only that India’s Computer Emergency Response Team has received many complaints from citizens about possible security and privacy issues.

Here’s the full list of applications that are now banned in India:

TikTok and Weibo are likely the most popular applications on that list. Several system-level applications from various manufacturers are also included, like Xiaomi’s Mi Community and Mi Video Call. Cheetah Mobile’s Clean Master also made an appearance — if only all of Cheetah’s apps could be banned everywhere.

We’ve reached out to Google to ask how the company will remove the listed apps from the Indian Play Store. For the moment, all of the applications still appear to be functional.

• Source:
• India Today