In a major move, the government has initiated the process to ban and block 138 betting apps and 94 loan lending apps with Chinese links on “urgent” and “emergency” basis, News18 has learnt.
Sources confirmed that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) received a communication from the Union Home Ministry this week on the blocking these apps. Sources also confirmed that MeitY had initiated the process to block these apps.
The Union Home Ministry had initiated the analysis of 288 Chinese loan lending apps six months ago, but found that 94 apps are available on e-stores and that others are working through third-party links.
Top sources told News18 that these apps, often displaying predatory behaviour to trap individuals in massive debt, can also be misused as tools for espionage and propaganda, besides posing a security risk to the data of the Indian citizens.
Investigators found that server-side security abuse has the potential to turn these applications into an espionage tool as the apps have access to critical data of Indians, and remote access to such data could be used for mass surveillance.
States like Telangana, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh as well as central intelligence agencies had asked the Union Home Ministry to take action against these apps, sources said.
Almost all of these apps were the brainchild of Chinese nationals who hired Indians and made them directors in the operation. After luring desperate individuals into taking on a loan, they jacked up the interest by up to 3,000% annually.
When the debtors were unable to repay the interest let alone the entire loan, individuals representing these apps started the cycle of harassing those in debt, sending them lewd messages, threatening to release their morphed photos and shaming them with messages to their contacts. The issue was thrown into the spotlight after a spate of suicides, particularly in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, by those who opted for such loans or lost money to betting apps.
In its Loan Wolves of China series last year, News18 had exposed how these apps and Chinese nationals were exploiting loopholes to bait Indians and posed a major national security risk.
According to top sources, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has initiated action based on the recommendation of the Ministry of Home Affairs on ’emergency blocking’ of these apps.
According to an official communication between the two ministries, the action has been initiated after confirming that these apps attract Section 69 of the IT Act as they contain “material which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India”.
Many apps are now not available to download on smartphones but sources say the betting apps and games are being downloaded through independent links or websites and even being directly played online or on social media platforms. Some of these also accept cryptocurrencies as payment.
The advisory issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) stated that since betting and gambling is illegal in most parts of the country, advertisements of these betting platforms as well as their surrogates are also illegal under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, Cable TV Network Regulation Act 1995 and the IT Rules, 2021.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has also advised online advertisement intermediaries to not target such ads at the Indian audience. The ministry has mentioned that betting and gambling pose significant financial and socio-economic risk for the consumers, especially youth and children. Accordingly, the promotion of offline or online betting/gambling through advertisements is not advised in larger public interest, it said.
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