New Delhi, UNI The government on Friday informed that there are reports that banned Apps are appearing in new form by using similar sounding names or rebranded with the same functionality.
In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said all such reports and grievances have been forwarded to Ministry of Home Affairs for examination.
He was responding to a query by YSRCP MP V Vijayasai Reddy who asked whether banned Apps are appearing in a new avatar by using similar sounding names and managing to circumvent scrutiny.
The minister said the Ministry of Electronics and IT follows the due process as defined in the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009.
On another question that if PUBG has also come back and some children have committed crimes when they were restrained from playing the game, the Minister said the PUBG gaming app was blocked by the Ministry in 2020 and the game is not available in India since then.
The Minister said there was a media report that a child had killed his mother based on PUBG that he had been playing.
This is a matter of investigation by law enforcement agency to find the reason, Chandrasekhar said.
Reddy asked whether people are downloading banned Apps with new names through APK files which provides an alternative platform to downloaded Apps.
The Minister said his Ministry has issued blocking directions to many third party App stores including Google Play Store and Apple Store to block the Apps under section 69A of the IT Act 2000 and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were also served with blocking directions to block related domains and IPs through which the blocked Apps were communicating.
UNI
