India Bans 119 Mobile Apps Chillchat Changeapp Honeycam Chinese Australian Developers Google Play Store

The Government of India has allegedly ordered to block 119 mobile apps, most of which are video and voice chat platforms and are created by developers associated with China or Hong Kong. According to a report, this blocking order was mentioned on the Harvard University-operated Lumen Database, although the listing has now been removed. This ban is being seen by the Government of India in the link of sanctions imposed on Chinese apps in 2020, 2021 and 2022 due to national security reasons. In the first 2020, many popular apps like Tiktok, Shareit were banned.

Moneycontrol report AccordingThis time the blocking orders have been issued under Section 69A of the IT Act, which gives the government the power to ban online content in view of national security and public system. The report states that there are some apps in this ban list which are associated with Singapore, America, UK and Australia. However, so far only 15 apps have been removed from the Google Play Store, while the rest of the apps are still available for download.

The report reveals only the names of only three apps out of 119. These include Chillchat, a Singapore-based video chat and gaming platform, developed by Mangostar Team. It has more than 1 million downloads. The second app is Changapp, which is made by the Chinese company Blom, while the third app Honeycam is operated by an Australian company Shellin Pty Ltd.

Three apps affected by the ban told Moneycontrol that they got information about this ban through Google. Chillchat said that this ban would be a major setback for Indian users as they use this app for daily communication and entertainment.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has not yet made public the specific security concen public. At the same time, the report states that this information on Google’s Lumen Database was published on February 18, but now it has been removed. How long the government will remove the remaining apps, no clear timeline has been given yet.