The India-China border conflict is playing out in tech, with the 29 June India ban on 59 “malicious” mobile apps – including the wildly popular TikTok – that the Indian government says are “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”. 

Tencent’s WeChat is also on the list, along with Weibo, seven QQ-branded apps, Baidu Translate and Xiaomi’s Mi Video Call as well as a host of photo/scan/camera apps.

The Ministry of Information Technology said the decision was made “in view of the emergent nature of threats”. 

A statement cited “raging concerns” relating to data security and “safeguarding the privacy of 130 crore Indians”. 

“It has been noted recently that such concerns also pose a threat to sovereignty and security of our country,” the ministry said, mentioning reports of “misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India”.

“The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures,” the statement said.