The Government of India banned 14 mobile applications operating in Jammu and Kashmir that were allegedly being used by terrorists, carrying our their terror activities.
The applications to be banned are, Crypviser, Enigma, Safeswiss, Wickrme, Threema, Briar, BChat, Second Line Conion, IMO, Element, Nandbox, Zangi and Mediafire.
Action taken
All these applications are banned under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the officials said.
These were the apps that posed a threat to national security and do not follow Indian laws, based on the recommendation of Security and Intelligence agencies the applications were banned.
According to sources, terrorists were using these apps to communicate with their supporters and Over-Ground-Workers (OGW) in Kashmir.
India banning applications that runs on unlawful practices is nothing new, earlier in times also, it has banned around 250 Chinese apps stating them to be “prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, Defence of India, security of the state and public order”.
Popular Chinese apps like TikTok, Shareit, WeChat, Helo, UC News, UC Browser, Xender, Camscanner along with popular mobile games like PUBG Mobile and Garena Free Fire were banned in June 2020.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information in February took back bans orders on some digital lending apps that includes Kissht, LazyPay, Buddy Loan, Indiabulls Home Loans and Faircent.
Apparently, the Ministry had issued orders to internet service providers and application stores to unblock some of the apps.
Mint reportedly talked to one of the application personnel, telling Mint that government is interested in knowing details like- the colour of the money (the one’s that VCs backing); kind of their target market they are offering their services to and where is the data getting stored at.
As the terror activities takes a turn from ground to digital platform, it gets crucial for any government to have a sound IT ministry to back up and India each day carries out various operations to make sure that it eliminate terrorists from rotting India.
