In whole, 232 apps have been banned by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in its newest orders. Some of those apps have Chinese origin and the blocking orders have been issued by the IT ministry primarily based on data and inputs from the Union Home Ministry, a supply mentioned.
“These apps contained material which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India,” one of many officers mentioned.
This can also be the primary time the federal government has moved to ban quick-loan apps which have Chinese origins. Most of those apps, sources mentioned, had Indian individuals working and administrators.
In the previous, the IT ministry has, with the Reserve Bank of India, organised varied consciousness workshops to apprise individuals of the perils of acquiring loans from these apps. The modus operandi of those apps was to entice individuals in search of funds in fast mortgage schemes the place the rates of interest have been subsequently hiked to as excessive as 3000%, an official mentioned.
Over the final two years, the federal government has banned near 400 gaming, photograph modifying software program, internet browsers, and different apps which have Chinese hyperlinks and have been concerned within the improper use of knowledge of Indian residents.
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The first of those bans got here in 2020. The record of banned apps included fashionable short-video sharing apps comparable to TikTok and others comparable to WeChat and Helo.
Nearly all of the blocking orders issued so far have been below Section 69A of the Information Technology Act of 2000, which supplies the federal government powers to train emergency measures to guard the “sovereignty and integrity, defence, security of the state and public order in India”.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com