The Indian government has taken swift action against a number of Chinese loan-lending and betting apps. After a thorough analysis of 288 Chinese apps, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) banned a total of 230 apps on an “urgent” and “emergency” basis. The decision was made based on recommendations from the Ministry of Home Affairs due to the potential access these apps had to the personal data of Indian citizens.
This happened after numerous reports of extortion and harassment towards individuals who had taken out small loans through these apps. In some cases, interest rates were increased by a shocking 3,000% annually. When debtors were unable to repay, they were subjected to threatening messages and even the release of morphed photos. Tragically, this led to a number of suicides in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
In response to these reports, various states and intelligence agencies called for action to be taken against these apps. 94 of the banned apps were found to be readily available on app stores, while others were being distributed through third-party links. The government has further issued an advisory, reminding citizens that betting and gambling are illegal in most parts of the country and advertisements for these betting platforms are also illegal under Consumer Protection Act 2019, Cable TV Network Regulation Act 1995, and the IT Rules, 2021.
This latest ban comes after previous actions taken against Chinese apps, including TikTok, Xender, and PUBG Mobile, which were deemed a threat to the sovereignty and security of India. The government imposed the ban under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, as servers in the hostile nation were receiving and using sensitive user data improperly.
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(Via)
