TikTok is banned in India, along with 58 other Chinese apps. But the company is leaving no stone unturned to get the ban revoked.
Chinese app development industries are facing the heats and shocks after the Indian government rolls out the stringent order of banning and invoking all the banned companies to come forward and respond or submit clarifications if they got any regarding the ban.
Yes, on Monday, the Indian government has banned 59 Chinese apps that we are endangering India’s ‘sovereignty and security’. Out of 59 Chinese apps in the list, the very famous 2-minute video-sharing app TikTok brings in the first response to the Indian government stating that it is in the process of continuing to complying with all the stipulated data privacy and security regulations under Indian law.
Nikhil Gandhi, India Head, TikTok, in his official Twitter handle mentioned that the company would take up the opportunity to discuss with the concerned government stakeholders to provide all the clarifications regarding the ban issue. He also asserts that TikTok has never shared any private or sensitive data and information of Indian users to any other country, including China. He also emphasises on the promise of not sharing the data in future as well even if it were asked to do so. TikTok values the privacy, integrity and security of its the loyal userbase, he added.
TikTok is one of the popular apps across the country with approximately 119 million active user base. TikTok supported 14 Indian languages with the millions of online users contributing short video clips on art, storytelling, education, dance performance and various other creative efforts. The app was regarded as a viable platform to launch one’s creative effort for reaching a massive audience across the globe within minutes. Most of the TikTok users are first-time internet users who perform on the web for their livelihood or for seeking immediate attention on the web.
Those users who have the app already downloaded can continue to use the app and post videos on the platform. But the Beijing based Bytedance owned TikTok, Vigo Video and Helo were now officially banned and staved off from Google play store and Apple app store.
In India, according to Q2 2020, these banned 59 apps constitute 5% of app installs that is 330 million downloads in iOS and Android smartphones. However, due to the straining ties between China and India, these apps installations has dropped 21% sharply when compared to Q1, 2020 of 420 million downloads of the previous quarter.
It is to note that Chinese apps dominate the top five spots of the most downloaded applications across the country, which is now banned. That included TikTok, Helo, Vmate, UC browser, and U video.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Monday had issued a list of 59 prominent Chinese apps that are now officially banned in India and mentioned in a statement that,
“These measures have been undertaken since there is credible information that these apps are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order ”
These Chinese apps are banned to protect the sensitive user data of millions of Indian people who would deliberately fall prey to these data pirating applications, the information technology ministry added.
Vivek Chandy, Joint Managing Partner at J Sagar Associates states that these apps were storing and sharing the sensitive personal data of millions of Indian users which was already a matter of concern sometime before. On account of data protection, now these apps are banned across the country and the impact those companies would face are yet to be known he added. Moreover, he emphasises to increase and strengthen the data protection laws of the Indian government in the days to come.
The India-China border conflict is weeding off every Chinese business across the Indian soil as a payback move. Previously the Indian government imposed a new e-commerce policy to rule out Chinese vendors in Indian e-commerce space; already state-owned telecom companies have discarded Chinese vendors out of their network up-gradation tenders; now it’s the time to stave-off all the Chinese mobile applications to safeguard Indian users data privacy across cyberspace, and it’s counting more. Let’s wait and watch over more retaliation steps!
