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After Banning TikTok and Other Chinese-Made Apps, India Goes After Clones

India banned 59 apps last month, including TikTok, and is now taking down clones that have popped up in their absence. It's also reportedly considering bans on 275 other Chinese-made apps it says are security risks.

Michael Kan
 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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TikTok and several other apps were banned in India a month ago, and now the government there is cracking down on dozens of clones that have popped up in their absence.

The country’s ruling political party today announced the takedown of 47 Chinese mobile apps, including one called TikTok Lite. The apps were all “variants and cloned copies” of TikTok and the other 58 Chinese-made apps that were wiped from Indian app stores in recent weeks.

Indian authorities claim the apps were secretly collecting users’ data and sending it to servers in China, making them a potential spying threat. “This decision is a targeted move to ensure safety and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace,” the government said last month. 

TikTok racked up 164 million mobile app downloads in India during the first half of 2020, according to research firm Sensor Tower. Since the ban, Indian users have flocked to other video-sharing apps, such as Roposo and Zili. However, the TikTok clone app indicates some users in the country are trying to circumvent the ban. 

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Other Chinese apps that India outlawed last month include WeChat and UC Browser, which come from the two biggest tech companies in China, Tencent and Alibaba Group. And others could be on the chopping block. According to the Economic Times, local authorities are examining 275 mobile apps, including Tencent’s popular gaming title PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, for violations of national sovereignty and user privacy. 

Related

In the US, the Trump administration is also considering a ban on Chinese-made social media apps, including TikTok. White House officials are worried the Chinese government could exploit the same apps to collect data on US citizens for spying purposes. However, TikTok has routinely denied that it poses a threat to users' security. 

“We're committed to building an app that respects the privacy of our users and to being more transparent with our community,” the company said last month.

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About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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