Apple: Need solid reason to take down betting apps

Apple has told Indian officials that it needs a “concrete reason or a legal requirement” to fully comply with the Centre’s directive to take down betting apps from its App Store, according to people directly aware of the matter. While the iPhone maker has not outright refused to comply with the February order by the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), the company has made it clear that it cannot “arbitrarily” remove the betting apps and make them unavailable in India, they added.

“It (Apple) contended that since these apps are valid and legal in other geographies, it would be difficult for (Apple) to bar them outright in India,” said one person cited above who told ET that Apple has been “asked to look into ways that the order can be implemented”.

Apple executives and Indian IT officials had met in March, shortly after the MeitY released a list of 138 gaming and betting applications that were barred from operating in India.

‘Three Options’

However, some betting apps such as Betway, BetNetix and Bet Analytix that formed part of the list of banned apps continue to be available on the Apple App Store as of press time Monday. These apps have been removed from the Google Play Store.

Also read | Exclusive: Betting, gaming apps Betway, Lotus365, Fun88 continue operations, ads despite blanket ban

Queries sent to Apple requesting comment remained unanswered till the time of going to press.

People aware said the phone-maker was in the process of complying with the IT ministry’s order. It is “vetting” the apps to ensure “only the wrong or bad players of the ecosystem” are taken down.

As an interim measure, Apple has taken down some of the apps that the IT ministry had banned in February, while it is working on the “best possible solution” for other apps, sources added.

Noting that “when the government issues takedown orders, Apple has one of three options — to tell MeitY that they cannot take down the apps and provide a reason for the same, take the government to court like Twitter did or to comply,” the person said.

Last July, microblogging site Twitter moved the Karnataka High Court against the government’s orders to remove content pertaining to the farmers’ protest and the handling of the Covid pandemic. The government alleged the posts were spreading misinformation. The government’s list also included accounts created in support of an independent Sikh state.

However, there is no reason for the Cupertino-based Apple to take months to comply with MeitY’s order issued in February this year, sources said.

The apps in question were allegedly in violation of Section 69A of the IT Act and at the time, officials believed they contained material which was a threat to the sovereignty and integrity of the country.

Legal experts are of the view that it is this very clause and its wording which could have provided a loophole to Apple.

“The wording of Section 69A of the IT Act is broad and uses terms like public order, security of the state and sovereignty of the country and so on which doesn’t necessarily cover gambling and betting,” technology and gaming lawyer Jay Sayta told ET.

“In 2010, CERT-In did not accede to Maharashtra government’s request to block betting website Betfair stating that they could not take down some content because it was not violating the clauses of Section 69A. So, it is possible that Apple too made a case along these lines,” he added.

Earlier in April, the Centre notified new regulations for gaming through an amendment to the IT Rules to protect online gamers from harmful content and addiction and prohibited games that involve wagering or betting with real money.

Following this, ministry officials have again asked Apple to ensure that any apps that allowed betting or wagering were not present on its App Store.

Minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the government would establish multiple self-regulatory organisations (SROs) that will approve games that comply with the rules for operation in the country.

Conflicting Rules

Vidushpat Singhania, managing partner at Krida Legal, said that he can “understand Apple’s confusion” while describing it as “two-fold”.

According to the IT Rules 2023, which were published in April 2023, MeitY has allocated the power to SRBs/SROs which will approve online games. “The fact that SROs/SRBs are still to be constituted and recognised by MeitY, could be the reason why it could be considered that the trigger has been pulled a little too soon, when it comes to banning these apps,” Singhania said.

Further, “betting and gambling is a state subject and while the Centre has come out with overarching guidelines for the online space, the power to classify whether an activity falls within the remit of betting and gambling in compliance with judicial precedent lies with the states,” he noted.

On its part, Apple on its App Store review guidelines published on their website says that gaming, gambling, and lotteries can be tricky to manage and tend to be one of the most regulated offerings on the App Store. It warns developers to include this functionality only if they’ve ‘fully vetted’ their legal obligations.