After Tiktok India considers banning, 275 other apps including PUBG mobile and AliExpress

[VirusDumb]

Summary

India has drawn up a list of 275 Chinese apps that it will examine for any violation of national security and user privacy, signalling heightened scrutiny and the possibility of more Chinese internet companies being banned in the country, according to people aware of the developments.

Quotes

Quote

 The list, reviewed by ET, includes gaming app PubG backed by China’s most valuable internet major Tencent, Zili by phonemaker Xiaomi, AliExpress by ecommerce giant Alibaba as well as apps like Resso and ULike from TikTok-owner ByteDance.

“The government may ban all, some or none from the list,” said one person cited above.

 

My thoughts

 Well in my opinion it's a very good time to encourage Indian developers.

 

But one thing which I am a bit impressed but still not happy about is the banning of pubg mobile, which has been notorious for ruining the gaming community of India, but banning this might infuriate the 12 y.o. toxic community of the game, and there are many streamers in India who have gained viewers by playing the game on emulators

Sources

 http://Pubg | Chinese Apps ban: After ban on 59 Chinese apps, 275 more on radar; list includes PubG and Resso https://m.economictimes.com/tech/internet/after-ban-on-59-chinese-apps-275-more-on-radar/articleshow/77188360.cms

[ImAlsoRan]

4 minutes ago, SeAsOn3 said:

-snip-

PubG Mobile is still an .apk, so I guarantee the streamers will just get it from a mirror. They're already using emulators, why wouldn't they just get the app from a different source?

[mr moose]

Does anyone care if 12 year olds get angry?    I mean, it's a good time to educate them on the concepts of global politics and the sovereignty of your country.    

 

 

[Levent]

8 minutes ago, ImAlsoRan said:

PubG Mobile is still an .apk, so I guarantee the streamers will just get it from a mirror. They're already using emulators, why wouldn't they just get the app from a different source?

Banning an app does not just consists of just blocking it on app stores. You can always block it's servers. (Which then can be bypassed with any shitty free VPN)

[VirusDumb]

10 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Does anyone care if 12 year olds get angry?    I mean, it's a good time to educate them on the concepts of global politics and the sovereignty of your country.    

 

 

Or about console and pc gaming

[Kraken_05]

Is COD Mobile included in the rumored list?

[Sauron]

19 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Does anyone care if 12 year olds get angry?    I mean, it's a good time to educate them on the concepts of global politics and the sovereignty of your country.   

It's pretty sad if the sovereignty of your country depends on banning phone apps... what's this supposed to accomplish anyway other than pettily "getting back" at China?

35 minutes ago, SeAsOn3 said:

 Well in my opinion it's a very good time to encourage Indian developers.

TikTok is not hard to make, it's all about getting people to actually use it.

[mr moose]

5 minutes ago, Sauron said:

It's pretty sad if the sovereignty of your country depends on banning phone apps... what's this supposed to accomplish anyway other than pettily "getting back" at China?

 

Well,  1. it will have an impact on their sovereignty if they prevent china from profiling and using mass data collection to leverage trade deals and political influence.  But also 2. they have to start with the small stuff I mean they could just declare war or ask China politely to let them have more water.

 

The alternative for India right now is to do nothing.  No one wants to just lay down and let china take their water.

[VirusDumb]

19 minutes ago, Kraken_05 said:

Is COD Mobile included in the rumored list?

Yes (it's made by tencent)

[VirusDumb]

7 minutes ago, mr moose said:

No one wants to just lay down and let china take their water.

Or user data (most of the apps which get held for stealing user data are Chinese)

[VirusDumb]

7 minutes ago, mr moose said:

No one wants to just lay down and let china take their water.

Or user data (most of the apps which get held for stealing user data are Chinese)

[williamcll]

Yo-star is not on the list? Well no value of importance was lost.

[VirusDumb]

23 minutes ago, Sauron said:

It's pretty sad if the sovereignty of your country depends on banning phone apps... what's this supposed to accomplish anyway other than pettily "getting back" at China?

Imagine China spreading 

[Vector0102]

I swear to god, if Aliexpress is banned... Where else can i get GTX 1080 Tis for just 100 dollars?

[williamcll]

3 minutes ago, Vector0102 said:

I swear to god, if Aliexpress is banned... Where else can i get GTX 1080 Tis for just 100 dollars?

Ebay

[Loote]

I am buying so much stuff from China, usually without VAT, depending on how popular it is in India I think that could make them loose quarter of their clients(6.4b people outside of China, 1.4b of them are from India, if those apps are overly poplar there they could make up even a bigger part of their trade).

 

It is not trivial, I know that much, I have no knowledge about the situation which would warrant a more opinionated comment.

[Sauron]

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

Well,  1. it will have an impact on their sovereignty if they prevent china from profiling and using mass data collection to leverage trade deals and political influence.

Banning a few apps isn't going to make a difference there. Have they banned Google or Facebook too? If they had a law prohibiting this type of data collection and blanked banned any and all services that refuse to comply I could almost respect it but that doesn't seem to be the case.

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

2. they have to start with the small stuff I mean they could just declare war or ask China politely to let them have more water.

China is hardly going to be intimidated or upset by the ban of a few apps... diplomacy (aka "asking politely") at least has a chance of accomplishing something without directly inconveniencing Indians in the process.

[VirusDumb]

3 hours ago, mr moose said:

Does anyone care if 12 year olds get angry?    I mean, it's a good time to educate them on the concepts of global politics and the sovereignty of your country.    

 

 

They ain't 12 y.o. olds some of them are older than me there brain is 12 y.o.

 Only someone with a brain of a 12 y.o. would do this

[VirusDumb]

1 hour ago, Sauron said:

Banning a few apps isn't going to make a difference there. Have they banned Google or Facebook too? If they had a law prohibiting this type of data collection and blanked banned any and all services that refuse to comply I could almost respect it but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Don't want to sound like a troll, the 59 apps banned previously held for stealing data, imagine them stealing your valuable information, now this may not be a big issue for average users but will be a issue for government employees.

 

And imagine them using those app to spread Chinese propaganda, would you tolerate the spreading of propaganda from a country you are in war with.

1 hour ago, Sauron said:

China is hardly going to be intimidated or upset by the ban of a few apps... diplomacy (aka "asking politely") at least has a chance of accomplishing something without directly inconveniencing Indians in the process.

It won't be inconveniencing for us there are some alternative for each of the apps, except AliExpress and PUBGM.

 

China is not going to be upset now but soon 99% of the Chinese apps may get banned, will not show a big but noticeable crack in the revenue made by the apps

[Sauron]

16 minutes ago, SeAsOn3 said:

Don't want to sound like a troll, the 59 apps banned previously held for stealing data, imagine them stealing your valuable information, now this may not be a big issue for average users but will be a issue for government employees.

Again, as far as I can tell there are plenty of apps that do that that are still allowed so I don't buy that reasoning.

17 minutes ago, SeAsOn3 said:

And imagine them using those app to spread Chinese propaganda, would you tolerate the spreading of propaganda from a country you are in war with.

AFAIK they are not officially at war and if that were the case then maybe act after they start showing propaganda (if they do)...?

 

Also I don't think the Indian government has any qualms about propagandizing to their own citizens so I don't really have much sympathy for this position.

19 minutes ago, SeAsOn3 said:

It won't be inconveniencing for us there are some alternative for each of the apps, except AliExpress and PUBGM.

Two things: if there are apps that do the same things, as I pointed out, what's the point in banning these specifically?

Secondly, this type of app lives and dies by its level of popularity. Nobody goes on TikTok because of the cool features or whatever, they're just on there because they know people on there. "Alternatives" don't really cut it.

[LAwLz]

I see that sinophobia is very much alive and well.

 

Gotta love how the bans are supposedly because of potential backdoors, yet India isn't doing anything about apps from countries other than China.

It's almost as if these bans aren't because of security concerns but rather a war being fought to try and make western countries invest into the Indian economy rather than the Chinese economy...

[Thunderb0lt]

4 hours ago, mr moose said:

Does anyone care if 12 year olds get angry?    I mean, it's a good time to educate them on the concepts of global politics and the sovereignty of your country.    

 

 

This.

[steelo]

The more I read about TikTok, the more I despise them. There is no doubt in my mind that the Chinese govt uses the service to some extent for intelligence. I'm sure other countries do the same thing (including the U.S) but not to the extent of China.

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, steelo said:

There is no doubt in my mind that the Chinese govt uses the service to some extent for intelligence. I'm sure other countries do the same thing (including the U.S) but not to the extent of China.

Oh boy do I have news for you. The biggest data harvesting companies in the world are pretty much all US based (Google, Microsoft, Facebook to mention a few), and as we have time and time again learned, all of them cooperate with the US government. And the few times companies don't cooperate with the US government, they are either forced to or agencies like NSA forcefully intercept the traffic.

[VirusDumb]

2 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Oh boy do I have news for you. The biggest data harvesting companies in the world are pretty much all US based (Google, Microsoft, Facebook to mention a few), and as we have time and time again learned, all of them cooperate with the US government. And the few times companies don't cooperate with the US government, they are either forced to or agencies like NSA forcefully intercept the traffic.

But we have to protect our data from China, cuz we (Indians) don't have any problems with USA