#BoycottChina was already trending in India, and the tensions at the Galvan valley were increasing day by day, when the government of India came up with the decision of banning 59 Chinese applications from the digital market. This ban was not easy for the people on both sides of the border. While one lost its multi-million market, the other sacrificed its means to earn a living to some extent.
This restriction on usage of many popular applications like Tik Tok, CamScanner, Share It, We Chat etc is understood to be a retaliation by the government in this ongoing war however, in its press release the government states the reason to block such sites as “raging concerns on aspects relating to data security and safeguarding the privacy of 130 crore Indians”. Nowhere they have mentioned the reason for them to be “Chinese apps”.
India is home to approx. 574 million active internet users amongst the largest and fastest growing digital market and therefore it becomes more important to check that these applications are putting the privacy of the user at risk. Such a skepticism was not new as at several other occasions in the past there have been many reports which accuse China for violating professional protocols.
- In the recent past, Huawei was reported to have links with PLA (People’s Liberation Army) and stealing data of its users.
- In early 2017, Weibo, We Chat and Baidu were investigated for breaching cyber security laws.
- A connection between Communist Party of China, Baidu and Tencent was found by the US Council On Foreign Relations in 2018. In the exact same year the Australian government warned and instructed their people to not use We Chat.
- In 2019, America again found TikTok suspicious and investigated TikTok.
- Early this year, in 2020, TikTok was also found secretly spying on the Iphone users and the same claims were made in reports that caught apps like Beauty Plus and U Cam for stealing data from the users phones.
While the lines are being drawn at the multiple fronts, India’s both explicit and implicit motives are fulfilled. However, before drawing a final conclusion in our minds it’s important to look at the buzz it has created in the business. China sees the power of these as apps as its way to conquer the world, the digital silk route as they say was their road to fulfill their ambitions and this step is no doubt nothing but an obstacle on their way.
If this ban gets legalised, china will lose its most crowded user market, according to statistics:
- 10% of TikTok Revenues come from India. It has 120 million monthly active users in India. Its other company, Halo has 50 million monthly active users in India.
- Bigo live had 22 million monthly users and Shein had 1 million of the same.
- In January, Club Factory celebrated its 100 million monthly active users from India.
All these users will now be gone. The already declining use by customers of these apps under #BoycottChina, they will be faced with a great deal of suffering.
Immediately secured alternatives have also been listed alongside the ban like the alternative that can be used instead of Shein can be Ajio.com and Myntra etc.
Not to forget that such great numbers are also the projection of the dependency of the Indian users on such apps both on the front and backstage. Many content creators and celebrities gained popularity on media platforms like TikTok and Halo and have people who have used CamScanner extensively to save their company documents will face shortcomings in their way but this by any means does not signify that they have not welcomed this stop. Many content creators have accepted the step in a positive attitude by posting on their social media and asking their followers to accept it as well.
We should not forget that the applications are yet to be completely blocked from each and every system and therefore the Ministry of Electronics and IT has sent a legal notice to Google and Apple to remove them and the final action depends on them.
Next step would be to spread Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) or telecom operators to stop the usage of the data from these apps. The people who have already downloaded will no longer be able to post any content on the app and the rest of the technicality will continue till these apps do not disappear.
This multi step process for protecting privacy digitally clears the need and urgency of a proper Data Protection law for India. All the procedures to prohibit these websites are just statements and press releases and we do not have a legitimate act which leaves a loophole for future. It is high time that India starts taking digital privacy into account as something crucial and legitimises the laws and protocols for it.
