PM Modi quits Chinese social media platform Weibo, 2 days after India bans 59 Chinese apps

New Delhi: The government on Monday had imposed a ban on 59 Chinese apps, including Weibo, a microblogging site, citing threats to data security and sovereignty of India.

PM Modi has decided to quit the app (Weibo), a platform which he had joined in 2015 to connect better with the people of China and so far he has shared 115 posts on the app and has about 2.44 lakh followers.

Though the PM decided to deactivate his account on the day the Chinese apps were banned, there was a two-day delay from the Chinese app’s side in approval of the request to remove the account because Weibo has a more complex procedure to quit for VIP accounts. Hence, the posts were manually deleted from Weibo, sources said.

“PM Modi had 115 posts on Weibo. It was decided to manually delete them, and after much effort, 113 posts were removed from the site. The only two posts that were left were PM’s photos with China’s President Xi Jinping. On the app (Weibo), it is difficult to remove posts with photos of their president. Which is why the two posts were delayed to delete.” Quoted the sources.

China, in reaction to the ban, described it as, “a deliberate interference in practical cooperation” between the two countries. China’s media also warned saying that this move would bring economic repercussions.The ban was one of the most discussed topics on Chinese social media.

After the clashes and standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh, a demand for boycotting Chinese goods from across the country has been growing. Many voices are being raised against these Chinese apps as these apps “harm India’s sovereignty and the privacy of our citizens.”
In a survey conducted of experts, a prediction of Chinese overseas direct investment (ODI) into India will drop sharply in 2020, forecasting a more than 50 percent cut had been made. This would be a “turning point” in economic relations between the two countries.