Apple Removed 14 Apps On Takedown Orders From Indian Govt In 2022

India accounted for the second highest number of app takedowns from Apple’s App Store in 2022. These app removals were undertaken after requests from the government. 

As per the tech major’s annual ‘2022 App Store Transparency Report’, the Indian government issued 14 app takedown requests for Apple for flouting local norms. 

Globally, Apple took down 1,474 apps from its app marketplace on orders of various governments. At 1,435, China accounted for the highest number of app removals.

“Apps may be removed from the App Store for a number of reasons, including violations of local law, repeated violations of App Store policy, fraud, and demands by regulators,” said the tech major while describing its app removal methodology.

India also logged 709 appeals against app removals by the Cupertino-based tech company last year. Consequently, Apple restored 24 apps in the country in response to the appeals in 2022. Overall, India saw the fourth highest number of app appeals and restorations last year. 

In its report, Apple said it reviewed every app on its App Store for compliance with community guidelines as well as privacy, security, and content standards. In total, the app marketplace hosted 17.83 Lakh apps globally in 2022 and reviewed 61 Lakh app submissions last year.

Apple said it terminated 28.2 Cr customer accounts during the year and had 3.69 Cr developers registered with the App Store in 2022. 

While Google-backed Play Store continues to be the undisputed market leader in the app marketplace segment in India, Apple also caters to a niche segment of high-end users. 

While 14 is still a small number, the growing takedown requests from the Indian government could have emerged over a series of reforms undertaken last year, including the union government’s efforts to block digital lending apps with links to China. 

However, the App Store continues to be an attractive bet for Apple as data-guzzling Indians continue to lead the globe in app usage and downloads. Indian users downloaded more than 28 Bn apps on their phones in 2022, ranking only behind China in terms of overall app downloads.

With the rising usage of apps, Indian authorities have also scaled up efforts to stem the alleged anti-competitive practices of foreign tech giants. 

Recently, Indian authorities were also said to be reportedly mulling new norms that would give them the power to screen major OS updates by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including Apple. In addition, the Centre has also been looking at instituting rules that will give users the choice to remove pre-installed apps on their smartphones. 

Despite the bottlenecks, Apple continues to scale its presence in India. Earlier this year, the company announced Unified Payments Interface (UPI) Autopay as a new payment option for subscription purchases on its App Store in the country. 

Its CEO Tim Cook recently landed in India for the launch of the company’s Apple Stores in Mumbai and Delhi. Cook has, on multiple instances, cited his bullishness on India and also led efforts to drastically ramp up the production of iPhones out of India. 

As per latest reports, iPhone production in the country more than tripled to $7 Bn in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), scaling up its share in Apple’s global production to nearly 7% from 1% in 2021.