On the recommendation of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has banned 138 betting apps and 94 loan lending apps with Chinese links in India. Government sources have confirmed that the ban was issued on an ‘urgent’ and ’emergency’ basis. As per the IT Act, these apps are subject to Section 69 as they contain material that is detrimental to India’s sovereignty and integrity.
People who used mobile apps to obtain small loans have complained about extortion and harassment by the companies behind them.
According to reports, Chinese nationals created the apps and hired Indians to be the head directors. It is reported that desperate individuals were lured into taking loans and then charged interest rates as high as 3,000 percent. These apps started harassing customers when they couldn’t repay the interest.
Loan-takers were sent lewd messages, threatened with morphed photos, and shammed with messages to their contacts. There have been a number of suicides, especially in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, by those who took loans from such apps and lost money to betting apps. According to sources, states like Telangana, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh as well as the Central Intelligence Agency asked the Union Home Ministry to take action against the apps.
The MHA started analyzing 28 Chinese loan lending apps six months ago based on the inputs. The researchers found that 94 apps are available on the e-store and others are accessible through third-party links. Sources say that betting apps and games can now be downloaded through independent links or websites instead of smartphones.
