India Bans 59 Chinese Apps

Amid rising tension between India and China at the Line of Actual Control, the government banned 59
Chinese mobile applications which include some of the prominent apps like Tik Tok, UC Browser, Share
It, Club Factory. A statement from the government said that these apps are engaged in activities
“prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, the security of the state and public
order”. The ban has been imposed under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with
relevant provisions of the Information Technology Rules 2009, it said. The government has also
mentioned complaints about the data on Indian users being transferred abroad without authorization.

What will be the Impact of Ban?

Some apps on the banned list are very popular in India, especially TikTok, which has more than 100
million monthly active users in India. According to a report, Indian users spent over 5.5 billion hours on
TikTok in 2019. Moreover, when TikTok was blocked in India for a week, ByteDance( which has
developed TikTok) had said in a court filing that it was losing more than $5,00,000 a day in the country.

According to the Sensor Tower report, TikTok was downloaded in India 611 million times in this year's
first quarter, equating to 30.3% of its total downloads worldwide in the quarter. A media report said
that ByteDance is anticipating a loss of over USD 6 billion after three of its apps were banned by India.

New social media platforms like Helo, Likee, and video chat app Bigo Live are immensely popular among
Indians. Now, these users will have to look for substitutes.

Also, most of these platforms have Indian creators, for whom this is the only source of income. Many of
these apps have offices in India, and a few thousand jobs could be at stake.