Indians worry app ban could result in job losses, reduced communication

India’s ban on 59 apps developed by Chinese companies may have a larger impact than the government wagered, as many locals have expressed their concerns within several days of the ban’s announcement.

From Indian students to businesspeople, and from online celebrities to IT talent, Indian users of these apps are waiting anxiously to see how the ban will be implemented and what impacts they will suffer.

Immediately after the ban was announced on Monday night, the Zakaria family in India called their son who is in Beijing via WeChat, the most popular chat app in

China which was developed by Tencent.

“As of now, I don’t have any problem using this app and my family and friends are not having any problem using this app in India. But I don’t know, in the future, will this app be completely banned? If so, how would I communicate with my family?” asked Zakaria, who has lived in China for three years, in an interview with the Global Times on Wednesday.

The list of banned apps includes multiple video platforms, which will critically strike local online celebrities who became superstars by posting videos on them. TikTok has been removed from the Google and Apple Indian app stores, according to Reuters.

Last year, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance decided to invest $1 billion in India as the country had become its biggest overseas market with more than 600 million downloads.

“This is a man-made crisis,” Zakaria said of the ban.