SUMMARY

The Indian Government in an unprecedented move, recently blocked 224 mobile applications (apps) offered by Chinese developers from access and download by users in India. This took place through blocking orders issued by the Government between June and September. Some of the blocked apps include renowned apps such as Helo, TikTok, SHAREit, UC Browser, Club Factory, WeChat and Shein. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India via its press releases, informed the public of the blocking of the apps.

Since this development, most of the apps listed in the press releases have been taken down from mobile app stores. In this article, Aaron Kamath and Vivek Kathpalia analyze the legal and regulatory framework under which the Indian Government issued blocking orders for select Chinese developed apps.

The article is published by The National Law Review and can be accessed here.