With VPN blocked, Indian websites not accessible in China

New Delhi, June 30: Indian newspapers and websites cannot be accessed in Beijing now without the Virtual Private Network (VPN) server.

While the ExpressVPN has not been working in China for the past two days, Indian TV channels can be accessed through IP TV. The latest move comes in the wake of increased tensions between India and China.

It may be recalled that India had on Monday banned 59 applications, including TikTok, UC Browser, SHAREiT among others. Most of the apps that were banned are from China.

The ban was enforced under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000, with deals with the powers to issue directions for blocking public access of any information through any computer resource.

The act says, "where the Central Government or any of its officers specially authorised by it... is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so to do, in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above, it may... by order, direct any agency of the Government or intermediary to block for access by the public or cause to be blocked for access by the public any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource."

We received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps... for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India. Since this "ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures, the Ministry of Information and Technology said.

The government would now follow this up with instructions to the Internet Service Providers to block these applications. Very soon, the user would see a message that says that these apps have been restricted.