Hyderabad: The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has ordered telcos and internet service providers to block the banned 59 Chinese apps with immediate effect. The apps were distributed in two separate lists.
“Ministry of Electronics and IT has issued directions for blocking of 35 apps. The details of all these 35 apps, along with their IP addresses and domain names are enclosed,” DoT stated in order on late Tuesday a statement from Department of Telecommunication said. .
A similar order was stated for the remaining 24 apps followed by the first one. The order had the details enclosed for these apps. DoT has asked the telecom operators to submit compliance reports of the same failing which they would face action.
Other than these 59 banned apps, DoT is also preparing a list of potential sites that could be banned shortly.
On Tuesday evening, there was confusion if the service providers had taken TikTok down as it showed a “network error” and “no internet connection.” TikTok was made unavailable on Google Play Store and Apple App Store since Tuesday morning.
The 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, SHAREit, and WeChat were listed for a ban by the government days after the Galwan valley clash on June 15 in which 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives. The government has said that the applications are engaged in activities “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.
The Ministry of Information Technology, invoking it’s power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 and in view of the emergent nature of threats has decided to block 59 apps since in view of information available they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order,” the order said.
Rathna Chotrani