The ministry of electronics and information technology has gone ahead and blocked 43 mobile applications for having engaged in activities which are said to be “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of the country, defence, security of state and public order”.
The decision of banning the applications has been mostly linked to China for Indian users. Some of the banned applications include WeWorkChina, AliExpress, CamCard and Snack Video among a host of others. It was earlier in this year that the Centre went ahead and blocked Indian users the access to 59 mobile apps and 118 more apps had been banned on September 2 under Section 69 A of the Information Technology Act. The decision of the government to ban the apps mostly owned and run by China was seen by the government as a digital strike on the neighbouring nation, China. This was seen as a strategic move by India especially because India was engaged in a conflict with China at the Actual Line of Control(LAC) in Ladakh.
It was only earlier that the government banned applications like TikTok, WeChat and Ludo citing prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of spare and public order. The authorities claimed that the applications that have been decisively banned by the government were leaking the data of Indian users and many experts have pointed out to the threats of several apps.Most of the applications that have been banned are Chinese in origin and owned by Chinese companies and several are based in Singapore and Hong Kong.
It is believed that the decision of banning these applications will be against the interest of the users and it is believed that with their banning, Indian users will be in a better position as far as their data in the global cyberspace in concerned
