India bans 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok, as tensions between the countries rise

[midian182]

In context: A Himalayan border dispute between the world’s two most-populated countries—China and India—turned deadly last month when fighting left 20 Indian soldiers dead and an unknown number of Chinese casualties. As tensions continue to rise, India has banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok, over national security concerns.

India’s Ministry of Information Technology writes that it has received many complaints about apps stealing and surreptitiously transmitting data to servers outside of the country, thereby threatening the “national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India.” There’s no mention of China in the statement, but every app is Chinese-made.

The list of 59 banned apps includes TikTok, which counts India as its biggest overseas market. The video-sharing social network is the most-downloaded app in the country, where it has over 200 million monthly users.

Apps from Xiaomi, India’s top smartphone vendor, appear on the list. WeChat, UC Browser, Shareit, and Baidu Map have also been banned.

Full list of banned apps

According to a mobile insights firm (via TechCrunch), the ban will affect around one in three mobile users within India, with 27 of the 59 among the top 1,000 Android apps in the country during June.

pic.twitter.com/0DZQ3Ucqcl

— TikTok India (@TikTok_IN) June 30, 2020

It’s unclear how India will enforce the ban, though it may involve asking Google and Apple to stop making them available to download. TikTok has issued a statement saying it is in the process of complying with the Indian government’s order.

Last month, an app designed to detect and remove Chinese-made apps went viral in India, but it was quickly removed from the Play Store for violating Google’s Deceptive Behaviour Policy.

Image credit: Talukdar David

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https://www.techspot.com/news/85813-india-bans-59-chinese-apps-including-tiktok-tensions.html

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I use WeChat to talk to my Chinese friends and share video clips of what's happening here in America with her which she otherwise can't see due to Chinese media censorship. She shares with me things happening there.

I really hate the "US vs. Them" mentality adopted by this current administration in America. India's perspective is different because they share a border. But ultimately, these Chinese apps all have the potential to be used for domestic spying so I may end up deleting Wechat if she and I can find a middle ground.

 

[Uncle Al]

The documented spying by China didn't start with this administration, it has been going on for decades. One of my former clients built a plant here after building the same plant in China 2 years earlier. They went to extraordinary efforts to hide certain parts of their construction for fear of satellite spying. In a conversation with their Plant Manager I asked if their drawings and sensitive documents created in China. He told me they had regular emails, file sharing, etc. with the home office while building this plant.

Once I shared a few facts about documents going in and out of China he nearly fainted and their corporation officers had a visit to our city to talk with me the next day. I shared all the information I could share. Approximately one year to the day of the plant opening up and starting operations it was shuttered because the Chinese had built an identical plant of their own and were selling the "product" at roughly 1/5th thus killing that companies market.

The global economy isn't bad but the US would be smart to severely curtail ANY business with ANY country that is considered an advisory for all the obvious reasons.

 

[Nobonita Barua]

The documented spying by China didn't start with this administration, it has been going on for decades. One of my former clients built a plant here after building the same plant in China 2 years earlier. They went to extraordinary efforts to hide certain parts of their construction for fear of satellite spying. In a conversation with their Plant Manager I asked if their drawings and sensitive documents created in China. He told me they had regular emails, file sharing, etc. with the home office while building this plant.

Once I shared a few facts about documents going in and out of China he nearly fainted and their corporation officers had a visit to our city to talk with me the next day. I shared all the information I could share. Approximately one year to the day of the plant opening up and starting operations it was shuttered because the Chinese had built an identical plant of their own and were selling the "product" at roughly 1/5th thus killing that companies market.

The global economy isn't bad but the US would be smart to severely curtail ANY business with ANY country that is considered an advisory for all the obvious reasons.

Financially stalking in SWIFT, illegally obtaining financial records & transgressing another country's sovereign matter, mas surveillance(as Mr Snowden pointed out), building entire chip industry with government incentive(as Mrs Tyson said before) is US norm.
Of course the last line would be"All countries do it, lets talk about china", but that's not going to happen. We are going to make sure US is "fair" from point 1 rather than point 20.
We are going to make US very honest, will see about China later.

And if US tries to act tough, I am afraid their "life style" is going to be either significantly be reformed or permanently be deformed.
US will be fixed permanently, by hook, by crook, or by force, by any means necessary.

 

[Homerlovesbeer]

TikTok = poison

Good riddance!

 

[Nobonita Barua]

More drama from the drama queens.

 

[ZedRM]

I think the EU and US should join this ban. TikTok is garbage...