(Image source from: india.com)
After the ban of 59 Chinese apps, PM Modi also wanted to quit from other apps which are Chinese Based. Weibo, the micro-blogging app delays the Prime Minister’s request of deleting the account.
On Monday Indian Government announced the ban of 59 China based apps from the country. This announcement came after the ongoing Indo-China clash at the Line of Action Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley of Eastern Ladakh.
The Prime Minister of the country had an account on Weibo, which is a Chinese app for micro-blogging similar to twitter. After 59 Chinese apps were blocked by the government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Weibo account went blank on Wednesday. The profile photo, posts and comments have been removed from the Twitter-like account. Weibo does not allow its users to delete their accounts only they can do so.
The Prime Minister had over 115 pots on the account and it all went blank on the Wednesday evening. All the posts, comments, profile picture and everything else had to be removed manually. That is the reason it took the Prime Minister 2 days after the announcement of the ban. Otherwise Narendra Modi decided to delete his account on Monday itself but after some back and forth they had to delete the posts manually. Deleting VIP accounts of China’s largest micro blogging app is not very simple; it is whole other complex process.
All the users of Weibo have no clear process of deleting their accounts; the posts also have to be opened and manually deleted one after another.
According to the sources, an official process which was supposed to be initiated was done way back, but the reason Chinese delayed the process is still unknown to them.
The Chinese app also has a feature where they cannot delete any pictures with their Presidents face on them. That’s the reason 2 Narendra Modi’s posts are still undeleted because they also have the Chinese President Xi Jinping alongside Modi in them.
The Prime Minister of India joined Weibo, the Chinese twitter like app in 2015, just before one of his visits to China. He had a verified account and also a total of 244,000 followers with 115 posts. He also used his Weibo account to wish the President of China last year on his birthday on June 15th. This year though he did not wish the president as on June 15th as well the Chinese PLA troops killed 20 Indian soldiers by dishonoring their own word of de-escalation.
After a huge ongoing clash since the mid-June between both the nations, government of India banned 59 of the apps based in China on grounds of security. There are allegations that these apps use personal data to store them and send them to the Chinese government which makes it a threat to the nation and also a prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India.
The action of banning the apps was taken after the Ministry of Information Technology said it had received many complaints from various sources of data breach and also cited reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on both Android and iOS platforms. Not just stealing but also surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India, in other words the apps were not complying with the privacy and security features of the Indian Law.
Among the 59 apps which are banned, the most popular ones are TikTok, WeChat, UC Browser, Share It, and Cam Scanner among various others. TikTok has over 200 Million users in India and the company says that they are submitting clarifications that no information of the users is going outside India.
By Deepika Agarwal
