NEW DELHI (Reuters)- India has ordered telecommunications companies and other Internet service providers to stop visiting 59 banned Chinese mobile applications and their crackdown on such companies following border conflict between the two countries, according to a Reuters note.
According to a notice released late Tuesday, the Indian telecommunications ministry said Internet operators should "immediately block" access to the applications and their websites and warned that law action would be taken if they did not.
Data picture: November 2019, byte beat and its video application Tik Tok logo. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
The ministry issued the order after india government this week banned several chinese applications for "threat sovereignty and integrity ", including byte-jumped TikTok、 alibaba (BABA.N)`s UC browser and tencent (0700. HK)`s social app. The move is seen as a move by India to boycott Chinese companies after border conflict with China.
Some websites of banned applications —— such as Alibaba UC News—— are no longer accessible on some Internet networks in India. While byte jumps were removed in india shortly after government release TikTok, several other banned applications can still be downloaded.
Two sources told Reuters that Indian government had contacted Google (GOOGL.O) and Apple (AAPL.O), respectively, to formally ask them to remove the apps from the app store to block new downloads.
Three industry insiders say telecom companies will try to disable apps that have been downloaded to indian phones in the coming days. It is not clear how telecom companies will do this.
"It`s very difficult to block the use of (downloaded applications) and takes time ," said a telecommunications source.
Neither google nor apple responded to requests for comment. The Jio、 vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel ——Reliance by the three major telecom operators also failed to respond.
China criticized the decision of the Indian government. The chinese embassy in new delhi said tuesday that india`s move to ban 59 mobile applications, mainly china, could violate world trade organization (WTO) rules.
Among banned applications, the most popular are byte-jumped video applications TikTok, India is its largest growth market, accounting for 30% of its global 2 billion downloads.
Both insider say byte beat will be discussed with Indian officials this week and seek clarification on the ban on applications. A source said the company might send a written statement to government later explaining its position.
The company declined to comment.
TikTok said it complied with all data security and privacy requirements in India. Bbyte beat last year announced plans to invest $1 billion in india, which currently employs 2,000 people. (concluded)
