It was a report from a central intelligence agency and a notice from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) that triggered a ban on popular battle royale game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).
The report spoke of breaches that can create cyber threats by collecting user data for profiling to conduct targeted cyber attacks on Indian users.
WATCH VIDEO: BGMI ban REAL reason: Government officials say it’s a MAJOR cyber threat to India
According to a senior government official, the app has various problems, but most importantly, it communicates with servers located directly or indirectly in China. Sources also confirmed that other apps that were “renamed” are also communicating with servers in China and are under scrutiny.
The move to ask Google to remove the application from the Play Store came after several rounds of analysis by Indian authorities.
“The analysis also showed that this application contains malicious code and also acquires a variety of critical permissions that could be misused to compromise user data for camera/microphone surveillance, location tracking and malicious network activities,” a senior government official told News18 the condition of anonymity.
“Such apps harm India’s sovereignty and integrity and can be very dangerous for the Indian safety net. The submissions were shared with us and immediate government action was taken,” a Meity official told News18.
The official order banning BGMI from India is still pending, but the process has already been initiated by Meity, urging affected companies to remove it from app stores like Google Play.
The company will now plead its case and the final decision on a full ban will be made thereafter.
Developer Krafton has said that he is working on bringing the game back. In a recent statement, the company said it is committed to the Indian market and is positive about the opportunities in the country. “At KRAFTON, the security and privacy of our user data is of the utmost importance to us. We have always complied, and will continue to comply, with all laws and regulations in India, including data protection laws and regulations.”
Meanwhile, Google has officially stated that it has received an official government order to remove the game. “Upon receiving the order, according to the established procedure, we notified the affected developer and blocked access to the app, which continued to be available on the Play Store in India,” it said.
WATCH VIDEO: We thank the government for banning BGMI, says an NGO that has told the government that BGMI is the same as PUBG Mobile
Rebranding will not work
According to senior officials responsible for analyzing such applications, banned Chinese apps have been rebranded in India but with no servers in the country. “These apps were relaunched in India, just like old wine in a new bottle, but they don’t have a server installed in India. Also, they collect data that can be misused, such as location, audio, and access to other important information. BGMI is also a rebranded version of PUBG,” a senior official said. Also earlier, the government banned some Chinese apps, which were rebranded and launched with new names.
Constant surveillance
The government keeps a close eye on Chinese apps through agencies and analyzes them from time to time.
The government has consistently banned Chinese apps that allegedly violate various Indian norms. In February this year, 54 more Chinese-origin apps were banned, indicating they pose a “danger to India’s security” amid ongoing tensions at the border.
Most of these were replicas of apps banned by the government after the Galwan Valley clash but quietly rebranded and relaunched in India.
With the addition of 54 other banned apps, the total reaches around 324, including the famous Tik Tok and PUBG (older version), which was forced to work with companies based outside of China due to the ban in India.
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