In another crackdown on terror groups, the Government of India has slapped a ban on as many as 14 mobile apps today. The central government banned these 14 mobile apps because they were being used by militants. Authorities have said these apps were being used by militants in Pakistan to send secret messages to Over Ground Workers (OGW) in Jammu and Kashmir.
The apps with links to Pakistan based militants were banned after recommendations from national security agencies.
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India has banned these 14 messenger apps:
- Crypviser
- Enigma
- Safeswiss
- Wickrme
- Mediafire
- Briar
- BChat
- Nandbox
- Conion
- IMO
- Element
- Second line
- Zangi
- Threema
According to ANI, most of these mobile apps are purposely created to preserve the anonymity of their users. Furthermore, the built-in characteristics of these apps make it challenging to identify the individuals or groups associated with them.
These applications were being used by terrorist groups to involve their accomplices in Jammu and Kashmir, in order to advance their acts of terror. Moreover, these apps targeted the youth to incite them and further their propaganda. To counter this, the Government of India banned them under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Previous crackdown on apps
This is not the first time that the Government of India has taken a step to block apps in interest of the nation’s security. Previously, a report by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) revealed that the Central government had banned 54 Chinese apps including the popular game Garena Free Fire, which is played by millions worldwide. This step was taken after it was revealed that these apps obtained various critical permissions and collected sensitive user data which was then transmitted to servers located in China.
Prior to this, the Indian government initially blocked 59 apps on 29 June 2020 followed by 47 related/cloning apps on 10 August 2020, thereafter 118 apps were blocked on September 1, 2020 and 43 apps were blocked on November 19, 2020.
