Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has put a permanent ban on 59 apps including TikTok & Wechat. These apps were already banned in June 2020 and now the reports quote that the ban is permanent now.
The reports suggested that following the ban, government had issued a notice to all the parent companies of the banned applications, asking about the data being collected and the use of that data. The answers ministry received were not satisfactory, therefore a new notice was released last week.
However this new notice has nothing to do with all the other apps which were banned throughout the year 2020. Over 200 apps were banned throughout the year, but some apps like PUBG tried to tackle the situation by creating an India-only version, PUBG Mobile India, which was announced in November last year, after they hired new staff in India.
However the later responses showed by RTIs suggested that the MeitY had given no permission to the relaunch.
As of now, companies has issued the following statement to the media:
“We are evaluating the notice and will respond to it as appropriate. TikTok was among the first companies to comply with the government of India directive issued on June 29, 2020. We continually strive to comply with local laws and regulations and do our best to address any concerns the government may have. Ensuring the privacy and security of all our users remains to be our topmost priority.”
A TikTok spokesperson statement to Mint,
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