The government of India has banned the BGMI under section 69A of the Indian IT law, blocking public access to content in the interest of national security, among other reasons.

The Indian government has banned Krafton’s Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI). Alphabet Inc’s Google and Apple have taken down the Krafton game on July 28, 2022. This development comes a year after the country banned popular game PUBG.

The government has banned the royal battle-ground format game. Under 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.

Under a similar provision of IT laws, the government of India banned more than 100 Chinese apps since 2020.That included the Chinese publisher Tencent Games’ PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).

BGMI is the Indian version of Tencent’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) that recently crossed than 100 million registered users in India. The Krafton game was relaunched in India as BGMI, a year ago to the heavy demands of the gamers.

BGMI is among the biggest Chinese apps that were relaunched and rebranded after the Government of India banned PUBG mobile on September 02, 2020.

Garena had also launched the Garena Free Fire Max after the ban of Garena Free Fire. Krafton has repeatedly stated that BGMI and PUBG are different games and said the firm had put in place safeguards — such as enforcing a time limit on the usage of its games, login authentication — to address any misuse of its titles.

“The game is extremely popular, and these issues come with the territory. We don’t know the details of the fraud and how it was committed, but these are extreme cases. We constantly work towards securing a safe gameplay experience for users,” Krafton’s India CEO Sean Hyunil Sohn told TechCrunch.

He added: “The government does not intervene in which apps can function and which cannot. They intervene in digital security and privacy concerns, and BGMI complies with all guidelines. MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) has also noted that PUBG and BGMI are different games,” he added.

Why Was PUBG Mobile Banned In India?

PUBG Mobile was banned by the Government on September 2, 2020. The mobile game was banned in India over security concerns by the government after a clash between soldiers of the Indian and Chinese armies in eastern Ladakh. Within ten months, it was relaunched as Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).

But it seems the Indian version of the game has also fallen under the government’s scrutiny.