DuckDuckGo is available again in India after blockade

After being blocked for several days, DuckDuckGo seems to be becoming available again in India. After the Indian government banned a number of Chinese apps, such as TikTok, DuckDuckGo also appeared to have fallen victim.

DuckDuckGo reported last week on its Twitter page that it received messages from India that the search service was no longer available there. After investigation, it turned out that the problem was not with the search engine itself, but with the Indian side; Setting up an alternate DNS server was found to help bypass the block. Now it looks like the search service is available again in India.

The Indian government itself has not disclosed anything about the blocking of DuckDuckGo and its lifting, but it appears to be a side effect of a block that was imposed on 59 Chinese applications last week. This included the popular TikTok app.

In particular, the Indian ministry cites the potential privacy violations of the apps as the cause of the ban. “There are serious concerns about the data security and privacy protection of millions of Indians,” the government said. However, the ban also follows a border dispute with China in which soldiers from both countries came into contact with each other.