Asian Tech Press (Feb 14) -- The Indian government will reportedly ban 54 Chinese mobile apps, alleging that they pose a threat to privacy and security of Indians.

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has issued a new order banning the use of 54 Chinese apps, saying they pose a threat to the privacy and security of Indians by sending sensitive data to servers in foreign countries such as China, the Economic Times reported Tuesday, citing government officials.

The banned apps, which range from video games to video chats and selfie cameras, involve Chinese companies such as Tencent, Alibaba and NetEase. Indian media specifically mentioned Free Fire, a video game app on the list.

Free Fire, a battle royale game, was launched by Singapore-based Sea Ltd. in 2017. And Tencent, Sea Ltd.'s largest shareholder announced January that it would reduce its stake in Sea from 21.3% to 18.7%, eventually reducing its voting power to below 10%.

Data shows that Free Fire is one of the most popular mobile games in the world, with more than 1 billion downloads on Google Play. Meanwhile, the game was so popular in India that it was the highest-grossing mobile game in India in the third quarter of 2021.

The Indian government also instructed app stores such as Google's Play Store to block the apps.

Since June 2020, India has banned a total of 224 Chinese apps, including the most popular non-gaming app worldwide TikTok, and Tencent's flagship social app WeChat, among others. This is the first time in 2022 that a ban of this kind has been issued.