Implementing app bans: The role of ISPs and app stores

NEW DELHI: India banned 59 apps originating from China, including Helo, TikTok, WeChat and Sweet Selfie. Many of these popular apps continue to be used by those who have downloaded and are available for fresh downloads as well — barring a few including TikTok which has `voluntarily’ taken action to block its app from being available in India across both Android & iOS platforms.

An `exhaustive recommendation for blocking malicious apps’, from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, part of the Ministry of Home Affairs resulted in the ban. It acted on the statement from the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) which said it had received complaints from various quarters, including several reports about the misuse of some mobile apps for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers outside India.