India blocks #TikTok (and 58 other Chinese apps) - Md.Rokanuzzaman

India Banned TikTok & 58 Other Chinese Apps

Tensions between India and #China now also spill over into the world of technology. The New #Delhi Government has, in fact, #banned the use of 59 applications developed by Chinese companies: they are accused of endangering the country's security and sovereignty. Among the prohibited apps, the very popular social #TikTok of the #Chinese Bytedance, which in #India has one of the most numerous user communities in the world. But the list of affected applications includes the #WeChat messaging service, the Chinese #Weibo twitter, the #Xiaomi video calling app (the company that sells the most smartphones in the country), but also UC Browser and UC News that are part of the universe. by #Alibaba. Overall, more than half of the applications involved are among the first thousand downloaded in the country on Android smartphones.

Complicated relationship

For the visibility it is having in recent months, the ban on TikTok is probably the most sensational, taking into account the 200 million monthly active users in the country and the over 600 million downloads on the two billion total. For its part, TikTok has reiterated that it respects the privacy and data protection rules provided by the country. However, this is not the first time that the social network loved by young people has been targeted by the Indian government: during the past year, the country asked Google and Apple to remove it from its stores because it favoured the spread of explicit content. On that occasion, however, the ban had been removed after just a week. But the disaffection towards TikTok was also growing in recent weeks with the app accused of broadcasting violent or even racist videos, leading many users to give the minimum rating to the application on the store. All this then fits into an increasingly growing anti-Chinese sentiment in the country and which was further fomented by the clash in mid-June between soldiers of the two countries on the border that led to the death of 20 Indian soldiers.