Ban On 59 Chinese Apps: Here's What Will Happen To The Apps Which Are Already Installed

The decision comes amid the ongoing tensions with China in Ladakh's Galwan Valley.

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New Delhi: While the government of India banned the 59 Chinese apps which include some widely used apps such as TikTok, ShareIt, UC Browser, and Cam Scanner, etc. The government has stated that it received many complaints from various sources including several reports about the misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner. While many users already have the apps installed on their phones, here's what will happen to them. ALSO READ|By Banning Its 59 Apps, India Hits China Where It Hurts The Most What will happen to the banned Chinese app if you have it already installed? According to reports, officials will inform all Indian internet service providers (ISPs) and telecom service providers (TSPs) already, who would be blocking all data and internet traffic to and from these apps. Since most of them work online only (for example, TikTok is a social medium, UC Browser is a content and browsing app and Clash of Kings is an online game), this would imply that all of the apps that have been banned would by default become non-functional. This also means is that none of these apps would receive any developer support in India and as a result, users who have already downloaded these apps would not be able to access app downloads either. Previously, when an app would be banned from a region, it would still remain functional if it did not depend on data. While this would hold true for these apps too, since they would no longer be able to access data in the Indian networks, they would be as good as inoperable. However, if a user moves out of Indian network space to countries where these apps are still legally operational, they may be able to use these services once again.