Twitter and Whatsapp are often blamed for spreading Fake News but no one did it like the Chinese apps. A short thread:

After India banned 59 Chinese apps, China also banned access to Indian news media as confirmed by Indian Newspaper Society. INS demanded a ban on Chinese-owned news websites and apps in India.

Indian news websites can't be accessed even from a virtual private network in China because they have used a technically advanced firewall to block Indian news media

China is anyway infamous for blocking or censoring foreign media. It forced Tibet flag to be blurred in Bollywood movie Rockstar. Similarly Taiwanese flags were removed from Tom Cruise's jacket in Top Gun sequel- Maverick

China indulges in censorship of foreign media or outrightly bans it but you know what’s most dangerous? Chinese regime actively suppresses anti-China news and spreads fake news in other countries such as India.

Two apps that spread fake news, censored anti-China news, propagated CCP’s narrative in India are UC News and Newsdog. Both these apps have been now banned.

UC News positioned itself as a general news application. Not a single news that can challenge CCP’s narrative could be found on the platform. But! UC news always had fake news on Indian leaders, communal riots and Anti-CAA and NRC protests.

Similarly NewsDog app owned by a PhD from Princeton University and a graduate from Tsinghua University used blockchain technology to spread its wings in India. It paid people to read news.

Unlike UC News that positioned itself as a general news application, Newsdog positions itself as an entertainment app. But in the name of entertainment, it served pornographic content with rape videos and communally sensitive material.

Most Chinese apps including even Shareit had a dedicated “news” tab where they offered regional content in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. Imagine the damage China was causing.

I spoke to a couple of journalists who were hired or interviewed by these apps. The management even the HR execs were always Chinese. They offered more than 50% raise on their current salary. Job Brief was small: Expand their reach in India.

They were also asked to strictly use only laptops and their company’s chat client for communication. These laptops were installed with spyware and snooped on the employees as well.