The Government of India has banned 54 applications that have ties to China and represent a threat to the country’s security. Also, this move would be a big loss for the Indian mobile gaming community as Garena Free Fire is among the list of blacked apps. Free Fire is one of the platform’s most popular titles with a large user base here in India, which just got banned.
Garena Free Fire, Tencent’s Xriver are among the apps that would be prohibited. This is not the first time the Indian government has prohibited applications. Hundreds of games and other applications were banned in 2020, including the popular PUBG Mobile when border tensions with China flared in May 2020. During that period about 300 apps were prohibited. And today another 54 apps are banned.
The list of 54 applications banned in India:
- Onmyoji Arena
- Onmyoji Chess
- Parallel Space Lite 32 Support
- RealU Lite -video to live!
- RealU: Go Live, Make Friends
- Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade
- SmallWorld-Enjoy groupchat and video chat
- Stick Fight: The Game Mobile
- Tencent Xriver
- Twilight Pioneers
- UU Game Booster-network solution for high ping
- Video Player Media All Format
- Viva Video Editor – Snack Video Maker with Music
- Voice Recorder & Voice Changer
- Volume Booster – Loud Speaker & Sound Booster
- Wink: Connect Now
- EVE Echoes
- Extraordinary Ones
- FancyU – Video Chat & Meetup
- FancyU pro – Instant Meetup through Video chat!
- FunChat Meet People Around You
- Garena Free Fire – Illuminate
- Isoland 2: Ashes of Time Lite
- Lica Cam – selfie camera app
- Live Weather & Radar – Alerts
- MoonChat: Enjoy Video Chats
- MP3 Cutter – Ringtone Maker & Audio Cutter
- Music Player – Equalizer & MP3
- Music Player – MP3 Player
- Music Player – Music, MP3 Player
- Music Plus – MP3 Player
- Nice video baidu
- Notes – Color Notepad, Notebook
- AppLock
- APUS Security HD (Pad Version)
- Astracraft
- Badlanders
- Barcode Scanner – QR Code Scan
- Beauty Camera – Selfie Camera
- Beauty Camera: Sweet Selfie HD
- CamCard for SalesForce Ent
- Conquer Online
- Conquer Online – MMORPG Game
- CuteU Pro
- CuteU: Match With The World
- Dual Space – 32Bit Support
- Dual Space – 64Bit Support
- Dual Space Lite – Multiple Accounts & Clone App
- Dual Space Pro – 32Bit Support
- Dual Space Pro – Multiple Accounts & App Cloner
- DualSpace Lite – 32Bit Support
- Equalizer – Bass Booster & Volume EQ & Virtualizer
- Equalizer & Bass Booster – Music Volume EQ
- Equalizer Pro – Volume Booster & Bass Booster
Following receipt of the interim order issued under Section 69A of the IT Act the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has instructed Google and Apple to prohibit access to the applications in order to enforce the ban in India.
According to MeitY these apps involved in acts that were detrimental to the country’s sovereignty and integrity, as well as constituting a major danger to the state’s security and defence. They were said to get a variety of crucial permissions and harvest sensitive user data. These obtained real-time data are being abused and sent to servers in hostile countries.
In addition to this, there were further major issues, since some of these applications may conduct espionage and surveillance operations via the camera/mic, obtain precise position (GPS), and engage in malicious network behaviour akin to previously restricted apps.
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