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India bans PUBG, Baidu and more than 100 apps linked to China

bbc.com

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Re: India bans PUBG, Baidu and more than 100 apps linked to China

#171

Post by on_and_off »

jeswin wrote: post #31

What I wish India would do is this: force Chinese phone companies to ship stock Android and full source code. They sell hundreds of millions of phones in India and will have to find middle ground, and the outcome will be good for everyone.

how does this work in practice ?

is there some kind of signature you can use to ascertain that the code you have is what's actually on the device ?

Is it possible to do the same for the SIM (as I understand it, it is its own microsystem and intelligence companies have already _at least_ attempted to insert their code in there) ?

what about play services or its equivalent ? These are often closed source and have lots of system permissions (since they handle lots of capabilities, they need a broad access).

edit : for clarity, I don't think it is a bad idea, I just wonder how doable it is.

Re: India bans PUBG, Baidu and more than 100 apps linked to China

#172

Post by andoriyu »

mayankkaizen wrote: post #93
green-bottle wrote: post #5

Like all other internet bans in India I doubt this one will have any teeth. Everyone has a "Free" VPN app that they use to bypass these restrictions. Most people own Android phones where they can sideload apps downloaded from some third party APK website (of questionable trustworthiness) iPhones have negligible penetration in India so are not even a part of the equation.

This is typical HN mentality to assume that other people are comparatively well versed in technical aspects. 99% indians (may be a little exaggerated figure) don't have any clue about VPN. Most don't even know how to side-install any app. So government actions do have some significance.

I know people who use VPN, but can't reinstall windows. Using VPN today is so simple, people do that without even knowing that they do. For them, it's: "I installed this thingy and now I can watch Hulu" and not "I install VPN to route my traffic via other country in order to by-pass national firewall"

Re: India bans PUBG, Baidu and more than 100 apps linked to China

#174

Post by tinza123 »

pagan42 wrote: post #158

The Chinese government mandates that every app written in China must track and trace it's users. This applies to apps running outside China but owned by Chinese companies. 1+ or Xiaomi or Huawei, they can't really do anything about it. They have to track users to be not banned.

Heresay is always popular I guess. Unless you have proof.

Re: India bans PUBG, Baidu and more than 100 apps linked to China

#175

Post by throwaway4good »

hal78 wrote: post #173

Can anyone tell me how a country is able to block these apps and sites? What is the hardware required? What's the process to do so. Any reference to existing articles would be amazing.

I believe most of this stuff is asking Google and Apple to remove the apps in questions from their Indian app stores.

Re: India bans PUBG, Baidu and more than 100 apps linked to China

#176

Post by sremani »

thevardanian wrote: post #118
d3nj4l wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nationalist countries often have "the enemy". It used to be Pakistan for India until very recently. Now it's China, only because of recent events, and there aren't very many Pakistani apps to ban either.

Wait... People actually unironically believe this line of reasoning?

Does not surprise me. Grade inflation with low quality education has resulted in people devoid of logic but sophistry to defend their position reassigning new meaning to words.

Re: India bans PUBG, Baidu and more than 100 apps linked to China

#177

Post by hbosch »

hal78 wrote: post #173

Can anyone tell me how a country is able to block these apps and sites? What is the hardware required? What's the process to do so. Any reference to existing articles would be amazing.

I think app stores across mobile OSes maintain region specific marketplaces. Developer accounts are also able to be localized. I assume it is trivial for, say, Google to block all apps from Chinese developers on the Play Store for any customer localized to India.

Re: India bans PUBG, Baidu and more than 100 apps linked to China

#178

Post by hal78 »

throwaway4good wrote: post #175
hal78 wrote: post #173

Can anyone tell me how a country is able to block these apps and sites? What is the hardware required? What's the process to do so. Any reference to existing articles would be amazing.

I believe most of this stuff is asking Google and Apple to remove the apps in questions from their Indian app stores.

So its just about the Indian Gov sending an email to Google and Apple. Didn't know its was this super easy once the country decides regardless of any knowledge about how this is actually done.

Re: India bans PUBG, Baidu and more than 100 apps linked to China

#179

Post by throwaway4good »

hal78 wrote: post #178
throwaway4good wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe most of this stuff is asking Google and Apple to remove the apps in questions from their Indian app stores.

So its just about the Indian Gov sending an email to Google and Apple. Didn't know its was this super easy once the country decides regardless of any knowledge about how this is actually done.

One of the many advantages of a centralised app store is just how easy you can support dictatorships and populist politicians ...

Re: India bans PUBG, Baidu and more than 100 apps linked to China

#180

Post by mytailorisrich »

ideals wrote: post #54

So far in the news (that I consume) I only see countries being agressive towards Chinese software companies. I can't imagine this goes on and continues escalating long before China reacts strongly. What is China's response going to look like? I feel uneasy that their response is going to light the fire even more.

India is taking superficial measures for the show and to save face because they are currently outdone on all fronts by China.

China is playing the long game and will continue to do so, notably by continuing to develop Belt and Road.

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