54 Chinese Apps Banned in India; Find Full List

The Ministry of the Home Affairs has recommended banning 54 Chinese mobile apps, including the popular game Garena Free Fire. Interestingly, Garena Free Fire is based in Singapore, and the developer is not from China. Last year this game was one of the most downloaded games in India last year and took the space created by PUBG Mobile after it was banned in September 2020. As some news agencies reported on Sunday, the app has already been removed from the Google Play Store and App Store in India.

As per PTI, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will formally issue a notice prohibiting the operations of these apps in India. In 2020, the government also banned TikTok and other popular short video apps from China. When TikTok was banned on June 29, 2020, the list included around 59 apps in total. Other popular apps on the list were Shareit, Shein (the trending website and app), Xiaomi Mi Community, Clash of Kings, Weibo, Likee, etc.

MeitY had banned the earlier apps under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, which states that the government has the "Power to issue directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource." This is usually when the government is "satisfied that it is necessary or expedient to do in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above or for investigation of any offence."

For TikTok and PUBG, the government had said that these were being banned "in view of the emergent nature of threats" as "they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state and public order." As a result, PUBG was banned in September 2020, along with 117 other apps. The third list of banned apps came out in November 2020, which included 43 apps.

Full list of 54 blocked Chinese apps:

1 Beauty Camera: Sweet Selfie HD

2 Beauty Camera – Selfie Camera

3 Equalizer – Bass Booster & Volume EQ & Virtualizer

4 Music Player- Music.Mp3 Player

5 Equalizer & Bass Booster – Music Volume EQ

6 Music Plus – MP3 Player

7 Equalizer Pro – Volume Booster & Bass Booster

8 Video Player Media All Format

9 Music Player – Equalizer & MP3

10 Volume Booster – Loud Speaker & Sound Booster

11 Music Player – MP3 Player

12 CamCard for SalesForce Ent

13 Isoland 2: Ashes of Time Lite

14 Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade

15 APUS Security HD (Pad Version)

16 Parallel Space Lite 32 Support

17 Viva Video Editor – Snack Video Maker with Music

18 Nice video baidu

19 Tencent Xriver

20 Onmyoji Chess

21 Onmyoji Arena

22 AppLock

23 Dual Space Lite – Multiple Accounts & Clone App

24 Dual Space Pro – Multiple Accounts & App Cloner

25 DualSpace Lite – 32Bit Support

26 Dual Space – 32Bit Support

27 Dual Space – 64Bit Support

28 Dual Space Pro – 32Bit Support

29 Conquer Online – MMORPG Game

30 Conquer Online Il

31 Live Weather & Radar – Alerts

32 Notes- Color Notepad, Notebook

33 MP3 Cutter – Ringtone Maker & Audio Cutter

34 Voice Recorder & Voice Changer

35 Barcode Scanner – QR Code Scan

36 Lica Cam – selfie camera app

37 EVE Echoes

38 Astracraft

39 UU Game Booster-network solution for high ping

40 Extraordinary Ones

41 Badlanders

42 Stick Fight: The Game Mobile

43 Twilight Pioneers

44 CuteU: Match With The World

45 Small World-Enjoy groupchat and video chat

46 CuteU Pro

47 FancvU – Video Chat & Meetup

48 Real: Go Live. Make Friends

49 MoonChat: Enjoy Video Chats

50 Real Lite -video to live!

51 Wink: Connect Now

52 FunChat Meet People Around You

53 FancyU pro – Instant Meetup through Video chat!

54 Garena Free Fire – Illuminate