Indian Govt Bans 50+ New Apps Including Garena Free Fire, Beauty Camera, and More; See List Here!

The Indian Government has taken another round of banning apps in India. Two years after it banned over 200 Chinese apps in India, it has now banned 54 apps, citing security and privacy issues. The list of banned apps includes the popular app Garena Free Fire, Beauty Camera: Sweet Selfie, and more. Here’s a look at the list.

List of 54 Apps Banned in India in 2022

It is revealed that the new app ban comes under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) suggests that the apps have been banned in India as they allegedly send users’ data to countries like China, thus, causing a privacy breach.

The IT ministry (via a report by HT) states, “These collected real-time data are being misused and transmitted to servers located in a hostile country. This will enable them to compile huge personal data to mine, collate, analyze and profile by the elements who are hostile to the sovereignty and integrity of India and for activities detrimental to national security.“

This list confirms the ban of Garena Free Fire, which was recently removed from the Google Play Store and the App Store due to unknown reasons.

This list includes Beauty Camera – Selfie Camera, Equalizer & Bass Booster, CamCard for SalesForce Ent, Isoland 2: Ashes of Time Lite, Viva Video Editor, Tencent Xriver, Onmyoji Chess, Onmyoji Arena, AppLock, Dual Space Lite, and more. Here’s a look at the whole list.

To recall, this is the fifth time the Indian Government has banned apps. Back in 2020, the government banned 59 apps, followed by a ban of 47 apps, 118 apps, and then 43 more apps in the same year. This list includes popular titles such as TikTok, PUBG, UC Browser, Shein, and more. Following this, a number of these popular apps’ alternatives came into the limelight. Krafton even introduced the Indian version of PUBG, which is popular by the name Battlegrounds Mobile India.

A number of the aforementioned apps that have been banned today are listed on the Google Play Store. It remains to be seen when Google removes them from its app store.