The Indian government has blocked BGMI which is a popular game application. Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) has been removed from Apple and Google app stores in the country following a government order. BGMI is the rebranded version of PUBG Mobile which was banned in India as part of the government’s initiative to remove a list of Chinese apps that were deemed a “threat to India’s security” back in 2020.
The game, developed by the South Korean company Krafton, is no longer available on the Google Play store or Apple App store. New Delhi has banned the game, using a section of the IT law that it has invoked since 2020 to ban Chinese apps on national security and data sharing concerns, a source told Reuters. As of now, the government has banned more than 270 apps, suspecting the stealing of Indian users’ data and sharing it with Chinese entities.
Google has said that it blocked the game following a government directive. “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,” a Google spokesperson told India Today Tech.
Whereas a Krafton spokesperson said the developer was talking to the Indian government and companies to figure out the exact situation regarding the suspension in the two major app stores in India. “We are clarifying how BGMI was removed from Google Play store and the App store and will let you know once we get specific information,” Krafton told India Today Tech.
Notably, in a recently reported incident, a 16-year-old boy killed his mother over PUBG as he was addicted to the Krafton game. The boy was enraged because his mother stopped him from playing “online games like PUBG”. This issue was also raised in the ongoing session of Parliament, which has indicated that the Home Ministry was examining some of the banned apps appearing in a rehashed version.
A few months ago, a non-profit organization named PRAHAR, which works in the area of socio-economic development, requested the government to ban BGMI under section 69A of the Information Technology Act stating that the app poses a threat to the sovereignty and integrity of India.
