India bans China's TikTok, WeChat apps, citing sovereignty, safety concerns

The Indian government has banned 59 mobile apps which is says pose a possible threat to the “sovereignty and integrity” of India, to its defence and security, and to public order in general, All India Radio reported. The government did not cite China by name but most of the apps, if not all, hail from the country, including TikTok, Helo and WeChat. 

The Ministry of Information Technology said the move comes after complaints about unauthorised use and storage of data. The ministry in particular flagged the fact that data was taken out of Indian data centres and stored, and probably used, elsewhere. The government says it wants to make sure India’s sovereignty is safe, as well as the privacy of its citizens. "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 concerns which requires emergency measures," the ministry said.

The move also comes amid the recent border clashes between China and India. “This is India’s first salvo to China after the border clashes, showing that India has a diverse range of retaliatory options,” one official told the Wall Street Journal. A spokesperson for Bytedance, owner of TikTok, said its roughly 2,000 employees in India are “committed to working with the government to demonstrate our dedication to user security and our commitment to the country overall.”