PUBG with other 118 Mobile Apps Banned by Government amid Border Tensions With Chinese troops.
Government blocked 118 mobile apps which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India.This include some of the very popular names such as PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik, PUBG MOBILE LITE, WeChat Work and WeChat reading.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said invoking it’s power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology Rules 2009.
It said the apps “are engaged in activities prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”.
“This move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users. This decision is a targeted move to ensure safety, security and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace,” said a statement from the ministry.
They said it has received many complaints from various sources, including reports about misuse of some mobile apps, for stealing users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers located 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,” it said.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs, said “Likewise, there have been similar bipartisan concerns, flagged by various public representatives, both outside and inside the Parliament of India. There has been a strong chorus in the public space to take strict action against Apps that harm India’s sovereignty as well as the privacy of our citizens,” it added.
“On the basis of these and upon receiving of recent credible inputs that information posted, permissions sought, functionality embedded as well as data harvesting practices of above stated Apps raise serious concerns that these apps collect and share data in surreptitious manner and compromise personal data and information of users that can have a severe threat to security of the state,” it said.
