Update on September 3: In response to the Indian government banning 118 ‘Chinese’ apps, the Chinese Embassy in India on Thursday said that the ban not only harms the “legitimate rights and interests” of Chinese investors, but also harms the interests of Indian consumers and the “investment environment”. Read more about it here. Earlier on September 2: India on Wednesday banned 118 more apps, including popular gaming app PUBG, for allegedly being engaged in activities which are "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order". The IT Ministry said that the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and Home Ministry have sent an "exhaustive recommendation" for blocking these "malicious apps". So far, the government has banned a total of 224 'Chinese' apps. On June 29, the government had banned 59 apps including TikTok, and WeChat, and followed that up by banning 47 more apps in July. The blocking order was issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. The development comes just days after India and China troops were involved in a fresh face-off at the border. "The Ministry of Electronics and 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. The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India,…
