Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad: Banning chinese apps was a ‘Digital Strike’

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said India’s move to ban 59 Chinese apps days after a violent face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Galwan Valley in Ladakh was a digital strike.

 “We banned Chinese apps to protect data of countrymen, it was a digital strike,was a digital strike,” Prasad said at a BJP rally in West Bengal.

India on Monday banned 59 mobile apps, terming them prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity, defence of the country.

 In an official statement, the IT Ministry said it has received many complaints from various sources, including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting user’s data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India.

Among the banned mobile apps are video-sharing social networking app Tik Tok, UC Browser and file sharing app Shareit, WeChat, etc.