TikTok, 58 More Apps Ban by India Violates World Trade Organization Rules: China

China said on Wednesday that the Indian government's decision to keep a ban on 59 Chinese apps was a violation of the World Trade Organization's fair rules of business and would hurt Chinese firms.

The ban dates from last year when political tension between the neighbours rose over their disputed border. This month the Indian government decided to keep the ban on TikTok and other apps.

"We urge the Indian side to immediately correct its discriminatory measures and avoid causing further damage to bilateral cooperation," Chinese embassy spokesperson Ji Rong said in a statement.

As a result of the ban, TikTok parent ByteDance decided to reduce the size of its India team and is unsure when the company will make a comeback in India, as per an internal memo sent to its employees. "We initially hoped that this situation would be short-lived... we find that has not been the case," ByteDance wrote. "We simply cannot responsibly stay fully staffed while our apps remain un-operational... we don't know when we will make a comeback in India."

In an earlier conversation, sources had told Gadgets 360 that following the ban, the government had asked for responses from all the companies that were banned about the data being collected, and how it was used. It appears that the government was not satisfied with the response, and issued a notice last week, according to reports.

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