Fact Check: NIC orders on restricting use of Chinese apps is FALSE
By Satya Priya BN Published on 20 Jun 2020 10:12 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A message is in circulation claiming that the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has issued an order instructing restriction of certain Chinese applications on Google Play Store and Apple IOS Store under C-Accordance D-98 letter 339 on absorption basis by Meity - reg.
The office memorandum was published on NIC letterhead and instructed the Regional Executive and representatives of Google India Pvt Ltd (Miss Neha Agarwal) and Apple India Pvt Ltd (Anuj Kr Reddy) that under the Information Technology Act 2000, the Government of India has asked them to restrict the functioning of the Chinese applications from the respective stores with immediate effect.
Fact Check:
The above claim is FALSE.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) issues any office memoranda of such decorum as to issue orders about restricting the use of apps at the national-level and NOT NIC.
National Informatics Centre (NIC) of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology provides network backbone and e-Governance support to the central government, state governments, UT administrations, districts and other government bodies. It offers a wide range of ICT services, including Nationwide Communication Network for decentralized planning, improvement in government services and wider transparency of national and local governments.
When we searched the website of MEITY for recent memoranda issued, we did not find any such memos.
No such order was found on the website of NIC also.
Recently, even the Press Information Bureau Fact Check also debunked the claim and clarified that it was FALSE. No such orders were issued by MEITY or NIC to the app stores.
The above claim that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has issued orders to Google Play Store and Apple IOS store that they should restrict the use of Chinese apps is FALSE.
