Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to quit Chinese social media blogging website and app, Weibo, in the wake of India launching a digital strike on China and banning 59 Chinese apps for being prejudicial to the sovereignty and security of the country.
ANI quoted sources as saying that PM Modi decided to quit Weibo soon after his government took a decision to disallow Chinese 59 mobile apps in India. PM Modi had joined Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, a few years ago.
Sources said Weibo has yet to close PM Modi’s account. Explaining this, sources said: “For VIP accounts, Weibo has a more complex procedure to quit which is why the official process was initiated. For reasons best known to the Chinese, there was a great delay in granting this basic permission.”
As a result of the delay, 113 of the 115 posts which PM Modi had written on Weibo have been manually deleted, sources added.
For VIP accounts, Weibo has a more complex procedure to quit which is why the official process was initiated. For reasons best known to the Chinese, there was great delay in granting this basic permission: Sources https://t.co/aEtTLxIPFm
— ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2020
The Indian government decided to ban 59 Chinese apps on Monday night amid the lingering border tensions, stating that these “are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order”.
The order issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) added: “This move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users. This decision is a targeted move to ensure the safety and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace.”
Upon receiving of recent credible inputs that such apps pose threat to sovereignty and integrity of India, the Government of India has decided to disallow the usage of certain Apps, used in both mobile and non-mobile Internet-enabled devices,” the order had further stated.
Among the 59 mobile apps that have been banned include the hugely-popular TikTok, SHAREit, UC Browser, Baidu map, Helo, Mi Community, Club Factory, WeChat, UC News, Weibo, Xender, Meitu, Mi Video Call – Xiaomi, CamScanner, and Clean Master – Cheetah Mobile.
