In the ‘Interest of Sovereignty and Integrity of India’: Centre Bans 118 Apps
The Centre has banned 118 apps in India on Wednesday, after having banned 59 such apps at the fag end of July.
According to ANI, in a press release issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on September 2, access to the apps, which are said to be “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India”, have been blocked. The list includes the video game Player Unknown Battlegrounds (PUBG).
The ministry said the move was under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009.
The ministry said it had “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 unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India. The compilation of this data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures.”
Banned apps include Baidu, WeChat Work, Ludo, Music, CamCard, Tencent Watchlist and others
“In the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India and security of the State. And using the sovereign powers, the Government of India has decided to block the usage of certain Apps, used in both mobile and non-mobile Internet enabled devices. These apps are listed in the attached appendix,” the statement said.
“This move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users. This decision is a targeted move to ensure safety, security and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace,” the statement added.
The decision comes after the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs has also sent an exhaustive recommendation for blocking these malicious apps, the government said.
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