Centre Asks Digital Platforms To Not Carry Advertisements Of Fraudulent Loan Apps

The government has directed social media and other digital platforms to not carry advertisements of fraudulent loan apps. 

Minister of state for electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that such apps are not only misleading but also exploitative to people using the internet, news agency PTI reported. 

He said the ministry has issued an advisory to social media platforms asking them to take additional measures to not permit any advertisements of illegal loan and betting apps that have the potential to scam and mislead the users.

“One of the areas we are now cracking down on is advertising of fraudulent loan apps that many platforms are carrying and we have, through yesterday’s advisory, made it clear that no intermediary can carry advertisements of fraudulent loan apps because it will be misleading and exploits people who are using the internet,” Chandrasekhar was quoted as saying.

It must be noted that the IT ministry on Tuesday issued an advisory to social media platforms, asking them to comply with the provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Rules and promptly remove misinformation, false or misleading content, and material impersonating others.

Meanwhile, a report by the Indian Express said that the government is working on amendments to the IT Rules to ensure that social media platforms don’t host advertisements of fraudulent apps. Once the new amendments are rolled out, the platforms hosting such advertisements may lose their legal immunity.

It must be noted that the last few years have seen the emergence of a number of fraudulent digital lending apps, which have raised concerns within the government. Last year, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked MeitY and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to create a whitelist of legal loan apps following the RBI guidelines and regulations. Following this, the two were also tasked to ensure that only the RBI approved loan apps are available for download on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

Earlier this year, Google rolled out a new policy for the personal loan apps. It said that such apps would have to  disclose a privacy policy that comprehensively discloses the access, collection, use, and sharing of personal and sensitive user data.

Earlier this month, Sitharaman informed the Parliament that Google delisted more than 2,500 fraudulent digital lending apps from Play Store between April 2021 and July 2022. She further added that the tech giant also reviewed around 3,500 to 4,000 digital lending apps during the same period.

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