Alibaba & Jack Ma summoned by Gurugram court as fired staffer alleges Chinese propaganda

In a major development, an Indian court has summoned Alibaba's founder Jack Ma in a case that has been filed by the company's former employee, as per reports in an international news agency. The case is filed in Gurugram district court and Civil Judge Sonia Sheokand has issued a summons for Alibaba, Jack Ma and about a dozen others, and has asked them to appear on July 29, as per reports. The judge has also sought written responses from the company

The former employee of the company alleges that he was wrongfully fired after he saw fake news on company apps and raised concerns about the same. The former employee of Alibaba's UC Web, has also alleged that the company used to censor content seen as unfavourable to China.

READ | Chinese businessman who criticised Jinping’s COVID response expelled from Communist Party

India bans 59 Chinese Apps

In a big move, the Home Ministry banned 59 Chinese Apps including TikTok. The Centre stated that it has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about the misuse of these apps for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers that have locations outside India. 

As India banned the apps including TikTok, Chinese mouthpiece Global Times quoting sources said that the loss to the parent company - Beijing-based ByteDance could be as high as $6 billion. At the time that TikTok was taken down, it had approximately 370 million users on the Play Store, with a large majority of those coming from India. 

READ | IT Ministry warns 59 Chinese Apps to comply with ban or face consequences; read details

China's response to app ban

China has said that his country is strongly concerned, and is verifying the situation about the ban on the apps. It said that the Indian government has a responsibility to uphold the legal rights of international investors including Chinese ones. "China is strongly concerned, verifying the situation. We want to stress that the Chinese government always asks Chinese businesses to abide by international & local laws-regulations. Indian government has a responsibility to uphold the legal rights of international investors including Chinese ones," he added. However, more and more countries are now considering a crackdown on TikTok.

READ | US Senate Committee approves bill to ban TikTok on federal employees' devices

READ | Trump government says US is seriously looking at banning China-origin apps like TikTok