Home Technology India bans TikTok, WeChat and several other Chinese apps

India bans TikTok, WeChat and several other Chinese apps

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We’ve recently seen a tech war of sorts taking place between the US and China erupt, that has hit some Chinese companies such as Huawei quite hard. It appears now that China might be facing an even bigger threat as India announced a ban of 59 different Chinese apps from use in the country over security concerns, which includes the big social giants TikTok and WeChat.

The country has announced security concerns as the reasons for the bans, though with rising tensions between the two countries politically, this could perhaps be an indication of further bans to come against Chinese companies in future. Hopefully this is nothing that severe and whatever security concerns there are, can be easily ironed out with developers. If there are valid security concerns though, expect other countries to follow suit.

TikTok may be a global phenomenon, but it is particularly huge in India, reportedly accounting for around 30 per cent of TikTok’s 2 billion downloads (according to SensorTower data) and with India considered a big market for Tencent’s WeChat as well, this news is likely to impact on the tech firms quite hard as their userbase erodes and some advertising revenue falls along with it.

This is not the first time the Indian government has had TikTok in their sights, as last year they also announced a temporary ban on the social media platform over concerns it was encouraging the spread of explicit content. That ban only lasted about a week, whereas it seems this one may last far longer if there are other political motivations involved.

Last Updated: July 1, 2020

6 Comments

  1. Fox1

    July 1, 2020 at 11:04

    India is the new “China” to USA. Remember how quickly they provided the USA with a massive stock of hydroxychloroquine which is now just a huge stockpile of nothingness to fighting COVID19?

    Reply

    • Gavin Mannion

      July 1, 2020 at 12:16

      You can’t really blame India for delivering what was requested by the dotard in charge though? Easy money

      Reply

  2. SagatatiaRZA

    July 1, 2020 at 08:38

    Well that’s a large portion of cringe reduction I guess

    Reply

    • Lu

      July 1, 2020 at 10:23

      Agreed.
      The basic economic principle has been proven time and again. The more of a comodity there is, the less value it has.
      Sounds elitist, but the harder it is to get your content out there, the more effort you’ll put into it.
      It’s exactly the same with the boom of “programmers” in the last 10 years.
      TikTok has flooded the internet and social media with low grade videos.
      If I see that logo I delete immediately.

      Reply

  3. Graham Christians

    July 1, 2020 at 12:56

    India need to be careful with the poverty in there country they cannot afford that job losses these politician should to there differences aside and start thinking of there people in there country instead of fighting each other

    Reply

    • Ryan Brandon

      July 3, 2020 at 12:40

      Exactly and totally agree with you. Banning these Apps in the country won’t affect China butleaving it unavailable to millions of people in India. Fortunately, the popularvideo-sharing social networking app can be made accessible in India by using an India VPN.

      Reply

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