Centre blocks 138 betting and 94 loan apps linked to China

NEW DELHI: The Centre has blocked over138 betting and 94 loan apps with Chinese links on an urgent and emergency basis. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) carried out the action based on the recommendations of the Union home ministry.

The decision was taken after confirming that the 138 betting apps contained material prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of the country.

Last year, the ministry had banned 54 Chinese apps which posed threat to India’s security. The apps included Equalizer & Bass Booster, Tencent Xriver, Onmyoji Chess and Dual Space Lite.

The government had said the 54 apps allegedly obtained critical permissions and collected sensitive user data. The data was being misused and sent to servers in a hostile country, the IT ministry had said in a statement.

These apps are either a cloned version or have similar functionality, privacy issues and security threats. In June 2020, the government had banned 59 apps and later blocked 47 related/cloning apps on August 10, 2020.

Later, 118 apps were blocked on September 1, 2020, and another 43 apps on November 19, the same year.