Government of India on Monday decided to block 59 mobile apps including Tik Tok and UC Browser.
The Ministry of Information Technology cited that they took this decision as “these apps are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of state and public order.”
The Ministry of Information Technology received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms. As stated in the official notification, there were complaints about stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs also received many representations raising concerns from citizens regarding security of data and risk to privacy relating to operation of certain apps. Hence, they too sent an exhaustive recommendation for blocking these apps.
The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) has also received many representations from citizens regarding security of data and breach of privacy impacting upon public order issues.
Based on all these inputs, the ministry decided to put a ban on these 59 apps in India.
