Central govt banned 232 foreign apps, including many Chinese loan apps

The central government has banned 232 apps that provide betting, gambling and illegal loans. Many of these apps are said to be related to Chinese companies.

Govt banned 232 foreign apps

"The order to block 138 apps that were involved in betting, gambling and money laundering was issued last night. Separately, an order to block 94 apps that were involved in unauthorized lending services was also issued," the official said.

These apps were being operated from offshore entities, including Chinese ones. They represented a threat to the economic stability of the country,” the official said.

Action has been taken against these apps under Section 69A of the IT Act and it has been said that these apps contained content posing a risk to Indian sovereignty and integrity.

The newspaper writes that complaints have been lodged against these apps for harassing and extorting money from common people after giving them loans.

A government source has told the newspaper that many people have even tried to suicide due to harassment from these apps in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Earlier, the Union Home Ministry of India recommended the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and the latter initiated the process according to the communication.

Harassment of ordinary people

The decision was made after confirming that these applications attracted Section 69 of the IT Law, as they contained material harmful to the integrity and sovereignty of the country, the ANI news agency reported on Sunday.

The action behind the decision was based on multiple complaints of extortion and harassment of ordinary people who had used small loans through the mobile applications. These apps were the brainchild of Chinese nationals who hired Indians and made them COOs.

The report said that desperate people were lured into taking out loans and then the interest was raised as high as 3,000 percent a year. When debtors could not pay the interest, let alone the principal amount, the people representing these applications began to harass them.

The representatives started sending them (the debtors) lewd messages and threatened to post their transformed photos and shame them by sending them to their contacts.

ALSO READ

• List of 320 Chinese apps Banned in India so far
• 54 more Chinese apps to be banned in India, Check if you are using them
• Complete List: Garena Free Fire, 53 more apps of Chinese banned

Follow Ground Report for Climate Change and Under-Reported issues in India. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Koo App, Instagram, Whatsapp and YouTube. Write us on [email protected].