Cold War between Nations
India boycotting Chinese apps is acceptable or not?
There has always been scuffles, tussles and wars between India and china since 1914 (Mcmohan line treaty). The two most populous nations find themselves at odds over the borders. Till now in 2020, when the world is fighting with one of the most severe pandemics, India and China are fighting over border issues in Galwan Valley, where around 20 Indian soldiers died. Any casualties in Chinese side has not been confirmed yet. After the rising tensions on the India and China borders, Modi government has made another move against China.
The Indian government had banned 59 Chinese apps to secure the national security, sovereignty and integrity of the nation. The 59 Chinese apps include, one of the most popular short-video making application ‘Tik-Tok’, the shopping app club factory, wechat, helo, cam scanner and many more. The ban has been imposed under section 69A of the information and technology act read with relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009, it said. The govt also cited complaints about data of Indian users being transferred abroad without authorisation. The ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) has stated about complaints being received regarding privacy and security issues. There had been several reports of mobile apps stealing user data and surreptitiously transferring to unauthorised abroad sources. Hence the concerns lit up for 130 crore Indian’s privacy and security.
The ban in the nation may affect the interest of the users, who have been using some immensely popular apps for a while. Tik-Tok, one of the most popular short video apps had around 100 million Indian users or more. Some the famous Tik-Tok artists had been earning through the app. There maybe contrary views from them, but everything done is to protect our citizen’s privacy, still government has sent a list of 79 questions to the banned apps company and are expecting replies before 22nd July. If the companies fail to reply then the ban will be made permanent. The exhausting list of 79 questions includes, parent company, funding, management and similar stuff.
Chinese government is not in support of the ban, well obviously they won’t be. Chinese government has put allegations over India of violating the rules of the world trade organisation, they also state that the move by Indian government violates the general practices of global trade and e-commerce and is not conducive to consumer interests in India, but what about the banned apps in china? China has a long list of applications banned, these include Facebook, twitter, Instagram, google and recently WhatsApp on the grounds of despising the strong encryption used, ironic right?
Foreign nations are welcoming the move by Indian government. Support is being provided from across the nations. a group of 24 influential Republican congressmen urged Trump on Wednesday to ban Tik-Tok and other Chinese mobile applications over security concerns, citing India's example. They wrote a letter to Trump to support the administration's efforts to restrict Tik-Tok and other social media platforms linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from accessing US markets. Additionally, A bill in the Senate introduced by Senator Josh Hawley seeks to prohibit certain individuals from downloading or using Tik-Tok on any device issued by the US or a government corporation.
Since china has always been looking forward to their nations security and had been keeping an eye on every social and IT platform, I think India’s move is compelling. If a nation wants to provide full security towards its citizens then no one shall stop them from doing so. Every leader is discharging and executing their onus with righteousness in their intentions.