Why Won&#8217;t Apple Take Down Betting and Gambling Apps in India?
Apple has recently refused to take down betting apps from the iOS store on the Indian government’s request, according to the Economic Times. According to the report, Apple is seeking ​​concrete reasons or a legal requirement to fully comply with the Centre’s directive. Interestingly, Google has already taken down these applications from its play store. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), under the instruction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), banned a total of 138 betting apps and 94 loan lending apps because of their links to China. Since 2020, the Indian government has already banned over 200 Chinese apps such as WeChat, TikTok, Shareit,, Helo, Likee, UC News, Bigo Live, and UC Browser, among others. Why won’t Apple take down these apps? Apple has not completely refused to take down the apps listed by MeitY. In fact, the tech giant appears to be in the process of taking down these apps, through an internal vetting process. However, some of the applications listed by MeitY such as Betway, BetNetix and Bet Analytix were still available on Apple’s store. Apple aims to prioritize fairness by seeking to verify if the listed apps have genuinely violated any policies, rather than resorting to an outright ban without due process. Further, experts are of the opinion that Apple might be exploring  loopholes in the Section 69A of the IT Act. Under Section 69 of the IT Act, the central and state governments possess the authority to issue content-blocking orders to online intermediaries, including ISPs, telecom service providers, web hosting services, search engines, and online marketplaces. These orders are enforced when the information or content is considered a potential threat to India’s national security, sovereignty, or public order. However, betting and gambling apps do not necessarily lead to a threat to national security and sovereignty. Why does the government want to ban these apps? These applications caught the government’s attention when a spate of suicides were reported in the Southern Indian states of Andra Pradesh and Telangana by users of these applications. Various reports of these betting and gambling apps becoming a growing concern, with reports of financial fraud and cyber threats, were also surfacing. Soon, several state as well as central intelligence agencies were requesting the government to ban these apps. Further, tax officials have also uncovered GST law violations by offshore entities providing online betting and gambling platforms to Indian residents via mobile apps. As per the GST law, all offshore service providers in India must register as suppliers of OIDAR (Online Information Database Access and Retrieval) services in order to comply with the prescribed procedure.
Apple is seeking ​​concrete reasons or a legal requirement to fully comply with the Centre’s directive.
Apple has recently refused to take down betting apps from the iOS store on the Indian government’s request, according to the Economic Times.
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