India has banned more than 59 applications in which China-based TikTok and WeChat are also included on Monday by the Ministry of Information and Technology due to security purposes after clash at Ladakh between the two forces.
Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad explained that they received complaints from various sources that applications steal information of the users and share it with Chinese government “in an unauthorized manner”.
Prasad reasoned that ministry banned the applications to ensure safety and security of cyberspace of the state.
Although US senators called investigation on TikTok as they have found out that application send information of users to the Chinese government, Indian news media says that banning Alibaba UC Browser and above mentioned Chinese apps in the state is political move.
Nikhil Pahwa, editor of MediaNama- a media watchdog, told BBC that it is a political move from the Indian side against China but it would have a “minor impact” on the revenue of the apps, yet the numbers of users will drop.
However, Prasanto K Roy, a tech expert, said that banning apps will kill popular “apps” yet government could ban them not remove them from app store.
He explained that Tik Tok would not be attractive if 95 percent users would exit the application as there would not be “network effect” and effective content on the app.
While shedding light on the after-effects of banning Chinese apps, Roy said that it would affect the finances and income of Indians because thousands of Indian TikToker make a living through TikTok and there are many businessmen in India that connect with Chinese through WeChat to run their business and earn money.
India has the highest number of users of TikTok among all countries in the foreign market, therefore ByteDance- parent company of the lip-syncing app, told BBC that they are committed to work with Indian government and their commitment shows their dedication to user security and “country overall”. Besides, Nikhil Gandhi- Head of TikTok in India, tweeted that the government invited application to submit clarification over the matter.
The government has taken step after the countries had clash. The neighboring countries had fierce clash at the Himalayan region of Ladakh in which 20 Indian soldiers died.
However the applications are not banned right now, they will be banned soon.
