The India-China tension has taken a new turn as the government has released an order to announce a ban on popular apps including TikTok, Clash of Kings, Helo, ShareIt, Shein and many more.
In an official statement, Ministry of Information Technology (Meity) said, “upon receiving of recent credible inputs that such Apps pose threat to sovereignty and integrity of India, the Government of India has decided to disallow the usage of certain Apps, used in both mobile and non-mobile Internet-enabled devices. This move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users. This decision is a targeted move to ensure safety and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace”.
Apps like TikTok continues to comply with all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and has not shared any information regarding this to the users in India.
The ban has been imposed under Section 69A of the IT Act with relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public Rules 2009).
We are uncertain whether these Chinese apps will be available for use or not. We suggest people switch to apps in India, this is will ensure the security of data and would boost the economy and confidence of people. Here are some alternatives to the banned Chinese apps one can use:
Chrome is rated as one of the best browsers and comes pre-installed on all Android devices that support from Google and is a substitute for apps like UC browser.
CamScanner is a popular app used frequently by users to create digital copies of physical documents as well as an archive of scanned documents. Users can use apps like Microsoft Office lens or Adobe Scan which are substitutes of CamScanner.
Tiktok is a popular video sharing app with more than a billion users and can be replaced by Mitron and Chingari, although these Indian apps aren’t quite as established as their chinese counterparts.
Xender and ShareIt are file transferring apps and can be replaced by Jio Switch and ShareAll.
Apps like Shein and Club Factory, offer customers a wide range of clothing and accessories that are mostly shipped from china. There are a variety of apps that can be used instead of these, including Myntra, Koovs, Jabong, Ajio and many more.
These were examples of a few homegrown alternatives to 59 banned apps on Android in India, which are safe to use.