New Delhi: The central government has banned the download of 119 apps from the Google Play Store on national security grounds. Most of these are said to be operated from China and Hong Kong.
Which apps are banned by the government
The central government banned more than 100 apps, including TikTok and Share-It, in 2020, claiming that they posed a threat to national security. Restrictions were imposed on the sharing of videos and chats related to this.
The ban on Chinese apps continued in subsequent years. In this context, the central government has issued an order to remove 119 apps from the Google Play Store. The list of these apps has been published by the Lumen database, a monitoring platform run by Harvard University in the United States. This ban has been confirmed by Google.
Most of the banned apps are said to be from our neighboring country China and Hong Kong. A few apps are from Singapore, the United States, Britain and Australia.
The full details of the banned apps have not been disclosed. Officials said that the ban has been issued due to national security, sovereignty and irregular activity, as well as the use of anti-government content. As per Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 119 apps have been blocked.
The prominent apps that have been blocked include Silchat, a Singapore-based video chat and gaming platform developed by Mangostar Group, SongApp, a Chinese company developed by Blom, and HoneyGame, a company developed by Australian company Shell’s PTY.