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The ban on popular battle royale mobile games is pretty common when it comes to the Indian audience and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) took the latest blow. History repeated itself when the Indian version of famous mobile game PUBG Mobile was banned in the country despite adhering to the rules laid down by the government.
PUBG Mobile itself was also banned in the country three years ago, citing its Chinese roots. Moreover, the fan-favorite battle royale mobile game Free Fire was also banned by the Indian government along with 53 other clones of Chinese applications back in February 2022.
Detailed timeline of BGMI's ban in India
BGMI was banned under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000, on the following grounds:
"Where the Central Government or any of its officer specially authorised by it in this behalf is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so to do, in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above, it may subject to the provisions of sub-section (2) for reasons to be recorded in writing, by order, direct any agency of the Government or intermediary to block for access by the public or cause to be blocked for access by the public any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource."
Here is a detailed timeline of the events that resulted in the chain reaction that is still going on:
2 September 2020
PUBG Mobile was banned due to its Chinese roots, along with its lighter version, and 116 mobile applications of the same origin. It adversely impacted the lives of many gamers and esports professionals.
However, the ban was justified and the developers started talking about a tailor-made Indian version of the battle royale game around December 2020.
2 July 2021
After 10 months, Krafton, a South Korean company, brought PUBG Mobile back to the Indian audience with a special version ie. Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).
The game gained huge popularity within days of its release. Various esports tournaments were also conducted in the months of November-December 2021 and were ongoing when the game was unexpectedly banned.
28 July 2022
Over a year after its release, the immensely popular battle royale game was taken down from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. This gesture brought forth rumors about a ban and mobile gamers began suspecting that BGMI would meet the same fate as PUBG Mobile.
30 July 2022
The ban was officially confirmed and the drastic step was taken to protect the “sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State.” The ban was justified by showing that even though Krafton is a South Korean company, Tencent, the Chinese conglomerate held 13.5% stake of it.
However, esports professionals are still optimistic about the game’s return. The servers have not yet been taken down and players can still enjoy BGMI despite the ban.
