India is moving to block 232 apps offering betting and loan services in the South Asian market in a bid to prevent misuse of the national public broadcaster’s citizen data. Said Sunday.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is in the process of enforcing an emergency order banning 138 betting and gambling apps and another 94 that offered unauthorized loan services to protect the country’s integrity, the broadcaster said. said.
Prasar Bharti added that the ministry’s move was prompted by a directive from the Ministry of Home Affairs. There were concerns that these apps could be used as espionage and propaganda tools as they seek to lure customers into paying large amounts of money without knowing the terms.
Sunday’s action is the latest in a series of government efforts to crack down on shark loan apps and other services that pose a threat to the public.
The Reserve Bank of India introduced tougher rules on digital lending firms last year, encouraging firms to offer more transparency and control to their customers.
According to the new rules, lenders are not allowed to increase a customer’s credit limit without the customer’s consent and must explicitly disclose annual lending rates. Digital lending apps are also required to obtain prior explicit consent from customers before collecting data, and all such requests must be made “on demand.”
India has also blocked more than 300 apps linked to China in recent years to protect its national sovereignty and integrity. Earlier last year, New Delhi banned 50 apps apparently linked to China, including Tencent’s Xriver, Garena’s Free Fire, NetEase’s Onmyoji Arena and Astracraft. The Indian government also announced in mid-2020 that amid geopolitical tensions between the two neighboring countries, dozens of other sites including ByteDance’s TikTok, Xiaomi’s Community and Video Call apps, Alibaba Group’s UC Browser and UC News Banned the app.
New Delhi never explicitly said it was taking action against apps from specific countries.
But Brendan Carr, a senior Republican at the Federal Communications Commission, praised India’s blocking of TikTok and other apps last month, saying that banning the ByteDance app is an “incredibly important move.” He said he set a precedent.
Carr warned that TikTok “acts as a sophisticated surveillance tool,” and found banning social apps “a natural next step in our efforts to secure communication networks.” bottom. Kerr said he fears China could use sensitive, non-public data collected from TikTok for “extortion, espionage, foreign influence campaigns and surveillance.”
“India’s precedent should be followed more broadly to weed out other malicious apps as well,” he added.
