Centre set to ban & block 138 betting apps, 94 loan apps with China links on urgent basis

In a digital strike on China, the government of India has initiated the process to ban applications with Chinese links.

The communication issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) stated that the 138 betting apps and 94 loan lending apps with Chinese connections will be banned and blocked on an “urgent” and “emergency” basis.

Centre to ban apps with Chinese links

As per the sources, the Central government began an analysis of 288 Chinese apps six months ago. It was revealed that the decision was taken after several complaints of extortion and harassment of common people who had availed small amounts of loans through the mobile apps being run by those entities and persons. It is learnt that these apps are the brainchild of Chinese nationals who hired Indians and made them directors in operation. As per inputs, desperate individuals are lured into taking on a loan and then jacked up the interest by up to 3,000% annually.

When the debtors were unable to repay the interest,  these apps started harassing those in debt via lewd messages, threatening to release their morphed photos and shaming them with messages to their contacts. States like Telangana, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh as well as central intelligence agencies had then asked the Union Home Ministry to take action against these apps, sources said.

The action has been imposed under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act as they contain material which is prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) issued an advisory, stating that since betting and gambling are illegal in the country, advertisements of these betting platforms, as well as their surrogates, are also illegal under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, Cable TV Network Regulation Act 1995 and the IT Rules, 2021. 

In 2022, the Centre banned 54 Chinese apps that pose a threat to the nation’s security.  It is to be noted that 270 apps have been banned by the government since 2020. Some reports suggested that these apps are from major Chinese tech firms like Tencent, Alibaba, and gaming company NetEase, among others. According to the sources, the ban was issued on the grounds that these apps were transferring the sensitive data of Indians to servers in foreign countries such as China.