Government Bans TikTok, Shein, Club Factory and 56 Other Chinese Apps

On Monday, the Indian government announced its move to ban 59 mobile apps using servers in China - including video sharing app TikTok, "to ensure safety and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace".

The ban is introduced in the backdrop of rising border tensions between India and China, which culminated in a clash on June 15, leading to the death of 20 Indian soldiers along with casualties in the Chinese side as well.

Also Read: Chinese Apps Ban: Here Are Your Alternatives To TikTok, CamScanner

The Ministry of Information Technology stated in a press release that such a move was made to protect data of Indian users from being transmitted to servers outside the country, and lists 59 different apps that shall be banned for that purpose.

The list included some highly popular apps like TikTok, Shein and Club Factory.

"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," it read.

While China is not mentioned in the statement, it is apparent from the list above that the ban was specifically targetted towards Chinese apps, as they all use Chinese servers.

This move comes 10 days after PIB Fact Check dismissed rumours about the government giving out a notice to Apple and Google to block Chinese apps in their respective app stores. PIB had claimed that no such instruction was given at that time by the government, and that the screenshot of the notice going viral was fake.