The Indian Government initiated a second-wave of banning Chinese apps on Friday. It has banned 47 more Chinese apps, after banning 59 apps including TikTok, UC Browser, last month, citing privacy concerns apart from the escalating Indo-China border conflicts.

Which Apps made the cut?

The 49 banned apps are mere clones of the already banned Chinese apps such as CamScan Advance, TikTok Lite. Therefore, there is no immediate reason for users to panic who are in the middle of transitioning to the alternatives of Chinese apps.

While there is no clear mentioning of which apps were banned, we have tried compiling a list of apps known so far using various online reports.

  • Tiktok Lite
  • Helo Lite
  • SHAREit Lite
  • BIGO LIVE Lite
  • VFY Lite
  • Camscanner advanced
  • Likee Lite

According to reports, the Government has been mulling over banning a total of 275 such apps, which may include banning PUBG Mobile, Resso.

The Development 

The second wave of the ban comes after the first 59 apps were banned on an “interim” basis, meaning that IT ministry is seeking clarification from the apps that were warned for privacy anomalies amongst other things.

Adding further to clarity on order dated June 29th, the IT Ministry cited several complaints lodged with them by many privacy activities, “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India”. 

Watch this space as the story develops further.