Following up on the ban of 59 apps, including TikTok and Mi Community, in India earlier this month, the Government of India appears to have banned 47 more apps that were seemingly clones of the apps in the earlier ban list, according to early reports. Further, another 275+ apps with Chinese connections are being investigated for any violation of "national security and user privacy", according to a separate report.
According to an early report from News18, the Government of India released an order on Friday that banned 47 more apps with Chinese connections. These apps are said to be functional clones of the apps that were banned earlier. The list of the newly banned app includes TikTok Lite, Helo Lite, ShareIt Lite, Bigo Lite, and VFY Lite.
According to a separate report from Economic Times, the Government of India has drawn up a list of over 275 apps with Chinese connections, which shall be examined for any violation of "national security and user privacy". This expanded list includes:
- Tencent-backed PUBGM
- Tencent's Ludo World and other apps
- Zili and thirteen more apps by Xiaomi
- AliExpress by Alibaba
- Resso, Ulike, Capcut by TikTok-owner ByteDance
- Games from Helsinki-based Supercell (which has Chinese investments)
- Apps from:
The apps under this list have not been banned yet. The report mentions that some of these apps have been red-flagged due to security reasons while others have been listed for violation of data sharing and privacy concerns, and the concerns either way are in addition to the examination of alleged data flow from these apps to China which "poses a threat to sovereignty and integrity of India".
The list of previously banned 59 apps can be found here. We're trying to obtain the list of the newly banned apps as well as the apps under scrutiny and plan to update the article with new details as they appear.