India bans Pakistan-based Vidly TV for exposing Hindutva extremism

• India says “Vidly TV” blocked for airing web series against national security and integrity.
• Action taken for airing “Sevak: The Confessions.”
• Web series shows events like Babri Mosque demolition in Ayodhya.

ISLAMABAD: New Delhi has banned Pakistan-based Vidly TV’s over-the-top (OTT) platform, apps and social media accounts in India as it has been streaming historical events, the plight of minorities under growing Hindutva menace and gaining popularity among the Indian population.

The Indian government said it had blocked Vidly TV in the country for airing a web series against India’s national "security and integrity."

India’s ministry of information and broadcasting has also slapped a ban on the platform’s website, two mobile apps, and four social media accounts by issuing an order under its emergency powers of IT Rules 2021.

An Indian ministry official told the media that the government’s action against Pakistan-based Vidly TV followed the web series “Sevak: The Confessions.”

The OTT channel’s web series showed events like Babri Mosque demolition in Ayodhya, Operation Blue Star, Malegaon blast, and Samjhauta Express blast among others. 

India bans mostly Chinese apps 

This is not the first time that New Delhi has banned apps of another country in India. 

In June 2020, India blocked access to 59, mostly Chinese, mobile apps including Bytedance's TikTok, Alibaba's UC Browser, and Tencent's WeChat citing security concerns.

The apps are "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order", the ministry of information technology had said back then.

The ban came after a deadly border conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

In February of this year, India blocked access to 54 more mobile apps, mainly Chinese but also including Singapore-based Sea Ltd's "Free Fire" mobile game, over security concerns.

Since the start of political tension with China in 2020 following a border clash, India's ban list, which initially had 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok, had expanded to cover 321 apps.

India believes user data was being sent via the apps to servers in China, one of the government sources, who sought anonymity in line with policy, told Reuters.

Such collection would allow the data to be mined, collated, analysed and profiled, potentially by "elements hostile to the sovereignty and integrity of India and for activities detrimental to national security," the source said.