Published 13:32 IST, July 2nd 2020
Google issues first response on India's 59 Chinese-origin app-ban; 'developers notified'
Issuing its first response on the banning of 59 Chinese-linked apps by India, Google said it has temporarily blocked access to those apps that were available
Issuing its first response on the banning of 59 Chinese-linked apps by India, Google on Thursday said it has temporarily blocked access to those apps that were still available on the Play Store in India after the government banned them this week.
'We have notified the affected developers'
"While we continue to review the interim orders from the Government of India, we have notified the affected developers and have temporarily blocked access to the apps that remained available on the Play Store in India," a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
However, the spokesperson did not disclose details of the apps that Google had blocked. According to PTI sources, developers of many of the 59 banned apps had taken down their apps from Google Play Store voluntarily.
India on Monday banned 59 apps with Chinese links, including TikTok, UC Browser, SHAREit and WeChat, saying they were prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity and security of the country. TikTok was amongst the first mobile apps that vanished from the Google Play Store after the ban. Soon after, popular apps like SHAREit, UC Browser, Shein, Club Factory among others were taken down.
'It was a digital strike'
Republic World on Thursday checked about the availability of these apps on the Play Store and found that apps like Weibo, ES File Explorer, Viva Video (Lite version), Likee (Lite version), YouCam Makeup, QQ are still available and can be downloaded. However, it is unclear whether the available apps provide full services at the back-end, or via subsidiary applications or extensions.
Calling the ban on Chinese apps a "digital strike", Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said India wants peace, but if someone casts an evil eye, the country is capable of giving a befitting reply.
Addressing a virtual rally in Bengal, Prasad said, "We banned Chinese apps to protect data of countrymen; it was a digital strike."
'Immediate concern which requires emergency measures'
The Information Technology Ministry in a statement said it has received many complaints from various sources, including several reports about the misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India".
"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 statement said.
(With agency inputs)
Updated 13:32 IST, July 2nd 2020