In total, 232 apps have been banned by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in its latest orders. Some of these apps have Chinese origin and the blocking orders were issued by the IT ministry based on information and inputs from the Union Home Ministry, a source said.
“These apps contained material which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India,” one of the officials said.
This is also the first time the government has moved to ban quick-loan apps which have Chinese origins. Most of these apps, sources said, had Indian people working and directors.
In the past, the IT ministry has, with the Reserve Bank of India, organised various awareness workshops to apprise people of the perils of obtaining loans from these apps. The modus operandi of these apps was to trap people looking for funds in quick loan schemes where the interest rates were subsequently hiked to as high as 3000%, an official said.
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Over the last two years, the government has banned close to 400 gaming, photo editing software, web browsers, and other apps which have Chinese links and have been involved in the improper use of data of Indian citizens.
The first of these bans came in 2020. The list of banned apps included popular short-video sharing apps such as TikTok and others such as WeChat and Helo.
Nearly all the blocking orders issued to date have been under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act of 2000, which gives the government powers to exercise emergency measures to protect the “sovereignty and integrity, defence, security of the state and public order in India”.
