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IT Ministry has blocked 224 apps in interest of national security: Dhotre

The IT ministry has blocked 224 mobile apps in the interest of national security and sovereignty, Parliament was informed on Wednesday

Chinese apps ban

Photo: Reuters

Press Trust of India New Delhi

The IT ministry has blocked 224 mobile apps in the interest of national security and sovereignty, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

"The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has blocked 224 mobile applications, including TikTok, Helo and WeChat under the provisions of section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India and security of State," Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

He said these apps have been blocked on national security concerns and thus "linkage with any country may not be disclosed in public domain".

 

In response to another question, Dhotre said blocking of apps for public access is a dynamic process.

In June, the government had banned 59 Chinese applications, including TikTok, UC Browser, SHAREit, WeChat, CamScanner and Mi Community.

Earlier this month, 118 more mobile apps, including popular gaming app PUBG, were banned.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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First Published: Sep 16 2020 | 6:08 PM IST

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