In wake of the ongoing
Indo-China border standoff, the Government of India has banned 59 mobile applications
of Chinese origin, including famous Tiktok, CamScanner, UC Browser, Shein and Shareit.
It is a preventive step to curb the activities of such apps which are
“prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India and
public order”, said the press release by MEITY.
Legal
Footing:
The ban has been
imposed under Section 69A of the
Information Technology Act,2000 read with the relevant provisions of the
Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of
Information by Public) Rules 2009.
Section 69A of the said
Act provides , “ Power to issue
directions for blocking for public access of any information through any
computer resource: Where the Central Government or any of its officers
specially authorised by it… is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so
to do, in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India,
security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order
or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence
relating to above, it may… by order, direct any agency of the Government or
intermediary to block for access by the public or cause to be blocked for
access by the public any information generated, transmitted, received, stored
or hosted in any computer resource.”
“The Ministry of
Information Technology has received many complaints from various sources
including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android
and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in
an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India. The
compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to
national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the
sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate
concern which requires emergency measures,” stated the press
release.
On the basis of
credible inputs and various complaints alleging data and privacy breach,
received by various government departments like Computer Emergency Response
Team (CERT-IN), the Government of India, “has decided to disallow the usage of
certain Apps, used in both mobile and non-mobile Internet enabled devices.”
This is a timely measure taken to safeguard the data security and privacy of 130 crore
Indian mobile and internet users and to ensure safety and sovereignty of
Indian cyberspace.
This legal news has been reported by Shruti Singh Chauhan who is a law student at PSIT Law College and edited by Samreen Ahmed, Research Assistant, Research & Innovation Department (ARIL), MyLawman
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