MLA Ansari Urges Center to Ban PUBG, Online Rummy, After TikTok

After the ban of 59 Chinese mobile applications in India, Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi leader and Legislator from Tamil Nadu M. Thamimun Ansari urged the center to ban other apps that pose ‘danger’ to the society. He said that apps like PUBG and Online Rummy should be banned, as they pose danger to the society and the young generation. He highlighted that children sat in a place for hours at a stretch while using such apps.

Recently, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder Dr S. Ramadoss also demanded that the central and state governments ban online rummy and other online gambling sites, which, he contended, are pushing the young into debt and poverty.

"The apps pose a threat to children's health as well as their thinking ability. This is a challenge to our society at large," said Ansari. Ansari had also earlier sought a ban on TikTok in the Legislative Assembly.

The government of India has recently banned 59 mobile apps including top platforms like TikTok, WeChat, Weibo, and Helo in order to prevent the threat posed by these apps to the country’s “sovereignty and security.”

Since it was launched in 2017, TikTok has been downloaded about 660 million times on Indian mobile devices. It was briefly banned in India last year when a court ruled that it exposed children to sexual predators, pornography and cyber bullying.

A government press release released late this Monday said the banned mobile apps are engaged in activities “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.”

This ban came upon the enactment of Section 69A of the Information Technology Act with relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009.

This government measure is to counter the CCP’s ‘military-civilian fusion’ strategy, which involves mining of data from apps like TikTok for military and political purposes in China.