The popular battle-royale game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) was banned as a result of a report from a central intelligence agency and a message from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity).
The report discussed offenses that could lead to cyber dangers by gathering user data for the purpose of conducting targeted cyberattacks against Indian users.
A senior government official claims that although the application has other problems, the biggest issue was that it was talking to servers that are either directly or indirectly situated in China. Other apps that have “rebranded” have also been confirmed by sources to be connecting with Chinese servers and are under investigation. After several iterations of study by the Indian officials, the government requested Google to delete the application from the Play Store.
According to News18, a senior government official on the condition of anonymity said, “The analysis also showed that this application has malicious code and also acquires a host of critical permissions, which could be misused for compromising user data for surveillance through camera/microphone, location tracking, and malicious network activities.”
The official added that such apps are a risk to India’s security grid and have the potential to harm the country’s sovereignty and integrity.
Although the official decision to ban BGMI from India has not yet been issued, MeitY has asked the affected companies to remove it from app marketplaces like Google Play and App Store. Following Krafton’s presentation of its case, a final conclusion regarding a complete ban is still impending.
According to the developer, efforts are being made to revive the game. The South Korean video game developer and distributor, recently released a statement in which it expressed its commitment to the Indian market and its optimism about the potential there. “At KRAFTON, the security and privacy of our user data are of utmost importance to us. We have always been compliant with all the laws and regulations in India, including data protection laws and regulations, and will continue abiding by them.”
The report adds that a number of Chinese apps have rebranded themselves to circumvent the ban in India. They don’t have any servers in India and gather sensitive information like ‘location and audio’.
While BGMI was supposed to be a dedicated game for the Indian market and crossed over 100 million users in a year, clearly, the Indian government is still not happy with how the app is processing user data.
Altogether, the ban seems like a decent way to go if Krafton is unable to deliver a solid case for themselves. However, if the India-dedicated version comes out from the abyss, we shall see a revival of hope for the youth to socialize and entertain once again.
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