In a Major Blow to TikTokers, India Bans the App Amidst Rising Geo-Political Tensions With China The government has banned 59 Chinese apps, including widely popular scanning platform CamScanner, UC Browser, e-commerce company Shein and WeChat

The government of India late on Monday banned 59 applications created in China, including the hugely popular video-sharing social networking platform TikTok in view of the emerging privacy threats posed by these apps.

The government has decided to block the usage of these apps on mobile and other internet-enabled devices "in view of information available they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order," as per the official statement.

It is not incidental that this announcement comes amidst the rising tensions between the two countries over Galwan valley in Indo-Tibetan Ladakh border and exactly one day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated during his Mann Ki Baat address that India has given befitting reply to China, without actually naming the latter but indicating towards it referring to the ongoing border conflict.

Helo and WeChat are the other top social media platforms to have been banned, along with some popular e-commerce companies, such as Club Factory, Shein and ROMWE.

The government also cited data security and risk to privacy as the major reason for the decision. "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," statement from the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) said.

"There have been raging concerns on aspects relating to data security and safeguarding the privacy of 130 crore Indians. It has been noted recently that such concerns also pose a threat to sovereignty and security of our country," MEITY added.

Here is the complete list of 59 apps banned:

1. TikTok
2. Shareit
3. Kwai
4. UC Browser
5. Baidu map
6. Shein
7. Clash of Kings
8. DU battery saver
9. Helo
10. Likee
11. YouCam makeup
12. Mi Community
13. CM Browers
14. Virus Cleaner
15. APUS Browser
16. ROMWE
17. Club Factory
18. Newsdog
19. Beutry Plus
20. WeChat
21. UC News
22. QQ Mail
23. Weibo
24. Xender
25. QQ Music
26. QQ Newsfeed
27. Bigo Live
28. SelfieCity
29. Mail Master
30. Parallel Space
31. Mi Video Call – Xiaomi
32. WeSync
33. ES File Explorer
34. Viva Video – QU Video Inc
35. Meitu
36. Vigo Video
37. New Video Status
38. DU Recorder
39. Vault- Hide
40. Cache Cleaner DU App studio
41. DU Cleaner
42. DU Browser
43. Hago Play With New Friends
44. Cam Scanner
45. Clean Master – Cheetah Mobile
46. Wonder Camera
47. Photo Wonder
48. QQ Player
49. We Meet
50. Sweet Selfie
51. Baidu Translate
52. Vmate
53. QQ International
54. QQ Security Center
55. QQ Launcher
56. U Video
57. V fly Status Video
58. Mobile Legends
59. DU Privacy

Tiktok has been under fire in India since early in April. First, a social media war between creators on Tiktok and Youtube hit the former's rating on Google Playstore severely, which was further aggravated in the following weeks by people calling out objectionable content promoting acid attack, abuse and misogyny being allowed on the video-sharing app. In less than a week, the app's rating dwindled to 2 from the earlier 4.6. Border conflict between India-China troops that began on 5 May further added fuel to the fire.

Despite the on and off controversies, Tiktok continued to maintain its position among the top 10 popular apps in India, which accounts for the maximum number of users of the app among all the countries where it is used. As per the company reports, India alone accounts for 611 million downloads of the around 2 billion downloads of Tiktok.

Call For Boycotting Chinese Items

Indian consumers and trade bodies have been strongly calling for a ban on Chinese products after the death of 20 Indian soldiers in a violent clash with Chinese troops at Indo-Tibetan Ladakh border on June 15. The anti-china sentiment is so strong that a whopping 87 per cent of the 8,487 respondents to a survey conducted by LocalCircles said they are willing to boycott all Chinese products for the next one year.

The Indian startup ecosystem has not remained untouched either from the escalating geo-political tensions between the two countries. Industry experts believe that late stage startups heavily backed by Chinese investors should look at diversifying their investors base to the US or Europe.