PUBG gets headshot; Govt bans 118 mobile apps with Chinese links

The Centre on Wednesday banned 118 more Chinese apps, including the popular gaming app PUBG Mobile, citing security reasons amid a fresh incursion bid by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army troops in eastern Ladakh.

The banned apps include Baidu, Baidu Express Edition, Tencent Watchlist, FaceU, WeChat Reading and Tencent Weiyun, besides PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite, according to an official statement.

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The government has decided to block the usage of certain apps, used in both mobile and non-mobile internet-enabled devices.

“The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India,” the government said.

“The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures,” the Ministry said in its statement.

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All these banned apps have Chinese links, PTI sources said.

Other apps blocked include games, online payment services, dating sites and software to edit selfies. All the banned apps have Chinese links, sources said.

Tencent Holdings Ltd’s videogame PUBG Mobile is among the world’s top five smartphone games with over 734 million downloads. According to reports, it has close to 50 million active PUBG players in India with 13 million daily users.

This is the third time that the government is banning Chinese apps. In June, the Centre banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, Club Factory, Cam Scanner and UC Browser, and later added 47 more to the list. In total, 224 other apps have now been banned by India.

Also Read: Govt bans PUBG Mobile, Baidu, Alipay, Tencent games and 114 more Chinese apps [full list]

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said that under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, the government has decided to block 118 mobile apps since, according to available information, they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to the integrity of India, defence of India, the security of state and public order.

Earlier, in June, India had already banned around 50 Chinese apps, including ByteDance's video-sharing platform TikTok, Alibaba's UC Browser and Xiaomi's Mi Community app.

The PUBG mobile phone app has millions of young users in India.

The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures, the ministry added.

There have been similar bipartisan concerns, flagged by various public representatives, both outside and inside the Parliament of India, it said.

This move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users, the ministry said.

India had also banned frozen Chinese firms out of contracts and held up Chinese goods at customs posts. China has complained about the action and warned that Indian consumers will suffer.

(With inputs from PTI, PIB)