Difficult to execute ban on Chinese apps: Digital experts

NEW DELHI: Several digital and technology experts say that it will be difficult to execute the ban on 59 Chinese apps as it would require internet service providers to blacklist every host name and domain name associated with these apps. It would also require Google and Apple to remove these apps from their stores, which could expose users to unofficial versions of the apps.

“App bans are notoriously hard to execute. Earlier when TikTok was banned, it was taken down from both app stores on the backing of a Madras HC order. Still people could download APKs from the web and access the app,” Shashank Mohan, a tech-policy researcher at Delhi’s National Law University Centre for Communication Governance. APKs are unofficial versions.

“The government has also not explained how these apps threaten the sovereignty of India,” Mohan added.