New Delhi: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said India’s surprise move to ban 59 Chinese apps days after a violent face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers in eastern Ladakh was a “digital strike”. “We banned Chinese apps to protect data of countrymen; it was a digital strike,” Mr Prasad said at a BJP rally in West Bengal today.
“Now you can hear about only two ‘Cs’ – coronavirus and China. We believe in peace and solve problems through discussion, but if somebody casts an evil eye on India, we will give a befitting reply… if our 20 jawans have sacrificed their lives, then the toll is double on the Chinese side. You all must have noticed that they have not come out with any figure,” the Law, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Minister said, echoing a similar statement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made last week on the India-China border tension.
India was TikTok’s top market, accounting for 30 per cent of its two billion downloads worldwide. TikTok parent ByteDance had laid out plans to invest $1 billion in India and had hired several senior executives since 2019.
