India’s government on Monday banned nearly 60 Chinese mobile apps, including TikTok, citing national security concerns, part of the largest eye-for-eye retaliation developing between countries after their armies clashed earlier this year. month.
The move comes after a deadly clash between the Chinese and Indian military along their shared and disputed border earlier this month. The fight left 20 Indians dead and an unknown number of Chinese victims.
While India has promised to retaliate, it lags far behind China in military and economic power, leaving it with few options. But Chinese telecommunications and social media companies have looked at the giant Indian market and its enormous potential. Only about 50 percent of India’s 1.3 billion citizens are online.
In addition to TikTok, the popular social media platform, banned apps include UC Browser, Shareit, and Baidu Map.
Mobile applications on Android and iOS platforms were “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting user data in an unauthorized manner to servers that have locations outside of India,” India’s ministry of electronic and computer technology said on Monday.
“The collection of this data, its extraction and profiling by elements hostile to national security and the defense of India, which ultimately affects the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of deep and immediate concern that requires emergency measures, “says the additional statement.
