India bans TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps amid border dispute
The Indian government has banned dozens of Chinese mobile apps over alleged privacy violations and for threatening its "sovereignty and integrity".
TikTok and WeChat are amongst the 59 apps which have been banned.
“For safety, security, defence, sovereignty & integrity of India and to protect data & privacy of people of India the Government has banned 59 mobile apps,” India’s Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted.
The ban comes less than two weeks after a deadly border clash between Chinese and Indian troops resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian soldiers.
The banning of the apps is India’s strongest step yet in targeting Chinese companies online.
Chinese apps are hugely popular in India, more than half a billion people use TikTok and Alibaba's UC browser .
However, ByteDance owned TikTok has faced accusations of violating its users' privacy in the past year, something the company has denied.
“TikTok continues to comply with all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and has not shared any information of our users in India with any foreign government including the Chinese government,” Nihil Gandhi, Head of TikTok in India said.
“We will meet Indian government officials to explain the security and privacy concerns of their App," he added.
Following the government order, Google and Apple removed the listed apps from the Android and iOS stores.
If the apps have already been downloaded they will be deactivated.
Last week, electronics imports from China including Apple, Cisco and Dell products were being scrutinised at local customs checkpoints in India without any "prior warning,"
It is not the first time the Indian government has issued such an order.
After a 2017 standoff between the two countries' militaries, Indian troops were forced to delete dozens of Chinese apps from their phones due to alleged national security concerns.