- The Central government has announced a crackdown on 138 betting apps and 94 loan lending apps.
- These apps attract Section 69 of the IT Act.
- The action behind the move is probably based on several complaints of extortion and harassment of common people who availed small amounts of loans.
As many as 138 betting apps and 94 loan lending apps with Chinese links have been banned in India by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, based on the recommendations of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The ban has been issued on an ‘urgent’ and ’emergency’ basis, top government sources have confirmed. The move comes after a confirmation that these apps attract Section 69 of the IT Act as they have material which is “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India.”
The action behind the move comes after several complaints of extortion and harassment of common people who availed small amounts of loans through the mobile apps being run by the said apps.
Individuals lured by Chinese apps face harassment
The apps were the brainchild of Chinese nationals who reportedly hired Indians and made them the head directors in operation. According to reports, desperate individuals were lured into taking loans and then are charged with interest rates going as high as 3,000 percent annually. When customers were unable to repay the interest, the representatives of these apps started harassing them.
The representatives sent lewd messages and threatened to release morphed photos of the loan-takers and shaming them with messages to their contacts. The matter came into the limelight after a number of suicides, especially in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, by those who took loans from such apps and lost money to betting apps. States like Telangana, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh as well as Central Intelligence agencies had then asked the Union Home Ministry to take action against the apps, said sources.
Based on the inputs, the MHA started analysing 28 Chinese loan lending apps six months ago. They found that 94 apps are available on the e-store and others are working through third-party links. These apps are now not available to download on smartphones but sources say the betting apps and games are now being downloaded through independent links or websites.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) issued an advisory, stating that betting and gambling are illegal in most parts of the country so advertising these platforms and their surrogates is also illegal under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, Cable TV Network Regulation Act 1995 and the IT Rules, 2021.
