No Plan To Revoke Orders Blocking Chinese Apps: Centre Informs Lok Sabha

The Central government has no plans to revoke the blocking orders issued against use of Chinese applications in the country, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Mr. Ashwini Vaishnaw informed the Lok Sabha today.The answer was in response to a question put by BSP MP Malook Nagar, whether the Government proposed to restart the use of Chinese applications in the country."No, Sir. There is no proposal with the Ministry to revoke the blocking orders," the IT Ministry responded. 59 Chinese mobile apps were banned by the central government in June 2020 citing threat to the sovereignty and integrity of India. The ban was imposed in light of the India-China stand-off at Galwan valley in Ladakh. In September 2020 the government had blocked 118 mobile apps, including the gaming app PUBG. In November 2020 the Ministry had decided to extend the ban to 43 other mobile apps, mostly Chinese, citing threat to the security of state. The orders were issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009. The Starred Question in Lok Sabha today also sought to know if the government was considering the development of any web-browser to check the increasing cyber crimes in the country. The Minister, in his written reply, stated that while there already exists many open-source internet browsers to tackle cyber-crimes, a broader consensus with the States would be required on this front as Police is a state subject."There are many internet browsers already available including open source browsers. Police is a State subject. For better regulation of cyber crimes, broader consensus with States is required," the reply states. It was further asked if the continuous transmission of obscene materials through phone can be checked by the recently made rules/law for regulating web series, OTT, etc. In response, the Minister states that under the recently passed Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 there exists a three-level Grievance Redressal Mechanism along with a mandate for publishers to furnish information to the Government and periodic disclosure of information regarding grievance redressal in the public domain. Read/ Download the Reply here

No Plan To Revoke Orders Blocking Chinese Apps: Centre Informs Lok Sabha

Sneha Rao

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