The Indian government is going to ban 138 betting and 94 loan apps with Chinese links. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has instructed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to take action on an 'urgent' and 'emergency' basis. The former has found these apps to challenge the sovereignty and integrity of India as defined in Section 69 of the IT Act. Here’s the cause of concern:
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The apps in question have reportedly trapped unassuming poor people with loans and subsequent inflation of interest per annum by up to 3,000%. The defaulters are then threatened with obscene messages including morphed sensitive images.
Unfortunately, this led to suicides in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The governments of these states as well as Uttar Pradesh and Odisha brought this up to the centre. Also, the central intelligence agency joined the motion.
So, about two months ago, the MHA started analyzing 28 suspect loan apps, and the list eventually grew to 94. Besides these, there are some apps with third-party connections to Chinese nationals. They may not even be available on Google Play and Apple app stores but on different independent websites.
In its finding, the government also realized that some of these apps have Indian directors placed by their Chinese lords.
We shall be sharing the full list once the government releases it.