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PUBG ban

BGMI

BGMI Banned in India: Here’s What Google and Krafton Said.

The most addictive and famous game, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), is removed from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store after a Government order. Despite its disappearance from app stores, it will run on the devices it is already installed on. This game was the altered version of PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) which was a battle royal game, developed by Krafton. BGMI had over 100 million registered users in the country just after a year it was relaunched after PUBG was deemed illegal in India. 

In 2020, the Indian government banned twenty Chinese apps and it was on the list of banned apps because of its involvement with the Chinese game development firm Tencent Games. Those apps were banned due to security risk reasons. 

An NGO, PRAHAR, has requested the government to ban the Chinese gaming application BGMI in February 2020 and to enlist it in the fifty-four Chinese app list, stating its unavailability in the list is a “clear lapse in judgement on part of the Government”. 

Source: www.news18.com

RSS, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh confederate Swadeshi Jagran Manch, has also supported PRAHAR’s request and urged for an investigation on antecedents and Chinese influence on BGMI, according to a report by IANS. 

BGMI
Image source: indiatvnews.com

Google has officially announced that it has received an official order for the removal of BGMI from the India Government and Krafton confirmed the same. 

Google in a statement said, “On receipt of the order, following established process, we have notified the affected developer and have blocked access to the app that remained available on the Play Store in India.”

Source: www.91mobiles.com

Why It Is Banned?

Meanwhile, Krafton said, “we are clarifying how BGMI was removed from Google Play and will let you know once we get specific information.”

Source: www.91mobiles.com

While there is not any proper statement or reason given for its ban, #BGMI, and #BGMIban hashtags are trending on Twitter. It seems to have connected to the violent incidents happening. Recently, there was an incident where a 16-year-old boy shot and killed his mother only because of some argument over online games such as PUBG. The incident was under investigation. 

While some reports mentioned the reason as the same as PUBG Mobile, the government is distressed about the issues regarding data transmigration and its connection to the Chinese firms. The real reason will be soon disclosed by the government. 

Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Union Minister, also noted that banned apps such as PUBG, which were banned in India, are resurfacing in new forms targeting BGMI, as it was also launched as the latest version of PUBG Mobile. 

BGMI has been the most renowned app among Chinese apps that was rebranded and relaunched with similar features and managed to stay out of government eyes. Maybe because of its high popularity among gamers.   

Its developer Krafton seemed to have invested about 100 million U.S dollars for the development and relaunching of BGMI and an esports ecosystem over the past years in India. So, the ban of this game will be a big blow to it in India. It will also affect the gaming market in India. The firm recently declared surpassing 100 million registered android and Ios users. chief Executive officer of Krafton, Changhan Kim, said 

“India is an important market for Krafton. We are positive about the opportunities in the country and are committed to create a robust gaming ecosystem. Our focus is pivoted towards constantly elevating the mobile gaming experience for our growing community and invest in the flourishing start-up landscape here”.

Source: gadgets360.com
PUBG Mobile

Indian Government Bans Another 118 Apps Including PUBG

The Indian government took a big decision on Wednesday by deciding to ban an additional 118 or so mobile applications, including the uber-popular video game PUBG. The move follows in the heels of an earlier decision to ban 59 Chinese applications earlier this year. All of these bans were a result of rising tensions between the two superpowers. India cited security reasons and data privacy concerns as the primary cause of the ban. Here’s a look at the impact the move will have, and what led to the government taking such drastic measures.

India Making Big Moves

Tensions had been high ever since the India-China scuffle at the Ladakh border a few months ago. These border skirmishes, coupled with the world’s resentment towards China for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, has snowballed into trade embargos and political battles around the world. Following India’s model, the US too recently banned the usage of a sleuth of Chinese applications citing security concerns. The Ministry of Information and Technology released an official statement yesterday, wherein it said that 118 apps have now been banned in India. The reason being cited that these apps were prejudicial to the integrity, security, sovereignty, and defence of the nation. As per the statement put out by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the ban falls under the purview of Section 69A of the Indian IT Act.

Major Apps to Leave India

Some of the biggest names in the list of apps now banned in India are Baidu, FaceU, WeChat, and PUBG Mobile. Several reports state that PUBG has over 33 million active users in India, meaning that this move will have a significant impact on the game. In fact, most reports state that PUBG is one of the most popular applications in India, with over 13 million users signing in every day. The Ministry noted that it frequently received complaints regarding people misusing these applications in various ways. Some of the complaints referred to the stealing or personal and private data and then selling such data to servers located outside India. The fact that such data could be mined, processed, and analyzed to harm the sovereignty of the country is what led to such drastic steps as per the statement from the Ministry. 

PUBG Mobile
Image Source: businessinsider.in

Further Notices and Suggestions

Furthermore, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, which works under the Ministry of Home Affairs also released a statement of recommendations regarding how to block these apps. In the public domain as well, people had been asking the government to take more stringent actions to protect the private data of Indian users. Such a targeted move will therefore help put to rest worries that a large part of the demographic had regarding the safety and security of the Indian cyberspace. The government has decided to retaliate at the best time, as global superpowers unite to protect their data and frameworks from foreign assaults and attacks.

Earlier Steps

Just a few months back, in June, the Centre had banned another 59 applications, with most of them being Chinese-based on similar grounds. This list included popular apps like UC Browser and TikTok. The recent ban on an additional 118 apps will see PUBG Mobile leaving India for an indefinite period. The wildly popular shooter videogame ranks within the world’s top five most popular smartphone games and boasts of over 734 million downloads. The game, which comes under Tencent Holdings Limited’s videogame department also has a loyal fan following in India, leading to social media being flooded with memes on the ban. The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi himself had referenced the game last year during a talk on exam stress. This interview after it went live led to the creation of the “Yeh PUBG-wala hai kya?” meme, which roughly translated to the PM asking a worried mother whether her son was a PUBG player.

It is quite evident that the ban on apps has a clear political agenda behind it. The very fact that the ban came after the Indian government accused China of using troops provocatively along the Pangong Lake in Ladakh is proof enough of this. As the Chinese troops had made a similar move on August 31st, the government was left seething at this provocation. However, the Indian army was able to successfully thwart both actions, preventing any damage or loss for the Indians. Recent months have witnessed several clashes and showdowns, with over 20 soldiers being martyred in the Galwan Valley in June. Political or not, there is no doubt that the banning of these apps will have a ripple in our cyberspace. It will be interesting to see whether China will retaliate in any way to these bans, as TikTok gears up to fight the US government through a civil lawsuit.