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In a shocking turn of events, the popular mobile BR title BGMI was removed from both the Google Play Store and App Store on July 28. Google issued a formal statement stating that the company had done so on the orders of the Indian government.
Following the incident, several reasons for the sudden move began to surface online. However, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology recently replied to an unstarred question (seeking a written response from MeitY) mentioning the real reason why many apps were recently revoked.
What is the real reason behind BGMI's ban in India?
Mr. Rodmal Nagar, a BJP MP, asked the MoS for MeitY an unstarred question about 'apps developed by China.' The 'Unstarred Question No. 2952' had four sub-questions that highlighted the following:
- Identification of any apps providing data to another (foreign) country.
- Details and reaction of the Indian Government on the same.
- Banning of these apps in the country.
- If the origin of such applications' developers is China.
Responding to the unstarred question, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, answered positively to identifying the potentially detrimental apps that were sending information out of the country. He further pointed to the role of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in Identification.
According to him, MeitY acted on the request of the MHA and recently removed many apps due to the collection and transmission of stored user data in an unauthorized manner. These apps were developed in foreign countries, including China. Mr. Chandrasekhar's response hinted at the fact that BGMI might be one of the 348 apps banned for this very reason.
What was the other statement from MeitY's official on the game ban?
In a recent report by News 18, a government official from MeitY stated that various Indian agencies had been analyzing Battlgrounds Mobile India for a long period of time. When the Indian government received a report from these agencies, they ordered Google and Apple to remove the BR title from their respective stores.
The official alluded to how the app contains several malicious codes and requires users to allow multiple critical permissions. These sanctions can be exploited as stored user data can be compromised for scrutiny through microphones and cameras, deleterious network activities, and location tracking.
According to the official, apps such as BGMI can cause harm to India's privacy, security, and sovereignty.
Possible outcomes
Many popular BGMI esports influencers such as Shiva Nandy and Dynamo have all spoken about how the game is only revoked and not banned yet. Dynamo also stressed the fact that the game may return as there is a huge demand for it in the market currently.
As expected, these statements have instilled hope in the hearts of many players and fans, who dearly love the game and have spent considerable amounts of money on it.
Meanwhile, many popular streamers like MortaL, sc0ut, Kaash, and Mavi have shifted to playing New State Mobile. sc0ut also announced that if the game does not return in the near future, he, along with most of the pro BGMI players, will be playing New State Mobile and trying to develop an esports games around it instead.
