It gains momentum that Huawei products are being banned in the US. For suspecting that these products were used for espionage. The devices are accused of sending sensitive and classified information to the server in China. This includes that Xiaomi products also send information about User behavior for data analysis on its server in China. These reports lead India to do a pulse check on so-called apps that are ‘Made In China.’ This is in addition to the continuous turmoil between China and India, the latter again has released a new set of apps that was banned in Indian Cyberspace following its initial banning last week.
With the use of the intensified Information Technology Act of 2000 under section 69A, the Government of India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT have added 47 more Chinese developed apps that are available in Apple Appstore and Google Playstore on the initial 59 apps that were banned in the country. The country restriction was the Government of India’s moved to protect its citizens’ security and privacy upon receiving many complaints of possible violation on these rights with the use of these developed apps originating from China.
Among the list that was banned on this second wave is the game developed by Tencent that is a multi-player mobile role-playing game that is well known around the globe. Following is Zili and 13 more apps, which are exclusive to Xiaomi phones. In addition to the list is the well-known online shopping app which is AliExpress, developed by Alibaba. Also included are games co-produced by China that are distributed by Supercell.
This action of the Indian Government made a significant impact not only with the App Development community but also with its citizen. Many citizens have commented that this is a great move to give local developer importance and appreciation to natively developed apps. On the contrary, some say that the Government must be cautious and scrutinize each app that they need to ban as this may impact the economy as some China developed apps are used for e-commerce such as AliExpress and Xiaomi. In which Xiaomi had postponed its new mobile launched in India according to this mandate of the Indian Government.
Currently, big names of hosting apps like Google Play and Apple Appstore already heed with the action of the Indian Government, they have already made restrictions on apps that can be installed and downloaded in the Indian Cyberspace.
They also have contacted affected app developers to submit their compliance documents to be reviewed by the Ministry before a China related app can be allowed again in India.
There are still 275 popular and some underrated apps that are being reviewed. These apps are at risk for the next wave of banning. They are thoroughly examined for possible violations of illegal data transfer and anti-privacy intrusion, which deemed to be a threat to India. Once the investigation is through, the Ministry is expected to rerelease a new batch of apps to be banned.
