Govt blocks 43 more Chinese-origin apps including Snack Video, AliExpress and DingTalk

In the latest crackdown on Chinese-origin apps, the Indian government has blocked 43 more apps, taking the total list of banned apps to 267.

On June 29, the government had banned 59 Chinese-origin apps over similar reasons followed by 47 apps on July 28 and 118 apps on September 2. 

According to a press release by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the fresh action was taken based on the inputs regarding these apps for engaging in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order. 

MeitY has issued the order for blocking the access of these apps by users in India based on the comprehensive reports received from Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center, Ministry of Home Affairs.

“Government is committed to protect the interests of citizens and sovereignty and integrity of India on all fronts and it shall take all possible steps to ensure that,” the press release said.

The blocked list includes some of the notable apps such as Snack Video, AliExpress and DingTalk. 

While AliExpress and DingTalk have been in the Indian market for quite some time, short video app Snack Video has gained popularity ever since TikTok got banned in India.  It is worth noting that Kuaishou Technology, the developer of Snack Video, had already wrapped up the operations of its banned short video app Kwai in India.

Snack video was dominating the top chart list of Google Play Store during the initial months of TikTok’s ban in India. According to data sourced from Sensor Tower, Snack Video was the highest downloaded app among all short video apps in India in the last 30 days.

Snack Video was downloaded over 35 million times from October 23 to November 22 while leading apps from India such as Josh, Moj, MX TakaTak and Roposo recorded 12 million, 8 million, 7 million and 1 million installs respectively.