Centre blocks 138 betting and 94 loan apps linked to China

New Delhi: The Central government has banned and blocked 138 betting apps and 94 loan lending apps with Chinese links on an urgent and emergency basis.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) initiated the action based on the recommendations of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) this week.

The crackdown comes after confirming that these apps attract Section 69 of the IT Act as they contain material which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India.

The action behind the move is based on several complaints of extortion and harassment of common people who had availed small amounts of loans through the mobile apps being run by those entities and persons.

The matter came into the spotlight after a spate of suicides, particularly in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, by those who opted for such loans or lost money to betting apps.

States like Telangana, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh as well as central intelligence agencies had then asked the Union Home Ministry to take action against these apps, sources said.

Based on these inputs, the MHA started analysing 28 Chinese loan lending apps six months ago. However, they found that 94 apps are available on e-stores and that others are working through third-party links.

It is learnt that many apps are now not available to download on smartphones but sources say the betting apps and games are being downloaded through independent links or websites.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) issued an advisory, stating that since betting and gambling are illegal in most parts of the country, advertisements of these betting platforms, as well as their surrogates, are also illegal under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, Cable TV Network Regulation Act 1995 and the IT Rules, 2021.

Last year, the ministry banned 54 Chinese apps which posed threat to India's security. The apps included Equalizer & Bass Booster, Tencent Xriver, Onmyoji Chess and Dual Space Lite.

The government had said the 54 apps allegedly obtained critical permissions and collected sensitive user data. The data was being misused and sent to servers in a hostile country, the IT ministry had said in a statement.

These apps are either cloned versions or have similar functionality, privacy issues and security threats. In June 2020, the government banned 59 apps and later blocked 47 related cloning apps on August 10, 2020.

Later, 118 apps were blocked on September 1, 2020, and another 43 apps on November 19, the same year.

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