BGMI ban in India: Players report notifications that claim the app has a virus

In a recent turn of events, images have started to surface online that Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) users are getting a pop-up that showcase the app has a virus. After the game's ban last month, this has created a huge buzz amongst fans in the Indian gaming community.

BGMI was delisted from both Google's and Apple's virtual stores on July 28. This left players and fans of the game heartbroken. However, since the game's servers are still running, many gamers are playing the title. While no problems had been reported until now, other than UC transactions having been shutdown, social media posts imply another issue has hit the game.

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Images surface online of notifications claiming that BGMI app has a virus

Amidst the entire saga regarding the game's ban, several gamers have taken to Twitter to tweet an image showing a pop-up message warning users to uninstall Battlegrounds Mobile India from their devices.

The message points to the game being a Trojan virus which is "employed by attackers to gain access to remote devices."

Sharing an image on Twitter, a user mentioned how a caution message is frequently shown on his device. They asked for a way out as they could not reach the developers since the game was not available in the Play Store.

Another player has tweeted saying that all the UPI apps on his Realme device have stopped working due to BGMI. In his post, he exclaimed his concerns on whether the title is sharing user data with third-parties.

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Meanwhile, popular YouTuber Gk Afroz has also uploaded a video to his channel that talks about the matter. In his video, he mentioned that the message is being displayed because BGMI is not available on the Google Play Store and many devices keep scanning the installed apps.

Showing striking similarities with the message shown while installing third-party apps, the YouTuber said that the game will no longer be judged as a virus once it reappears on the Google Play Store.

However, players must remember that a senior official from MEITY had mentioned the harmful nature of the game while talking to a news channel, which eventually led to its removal from the virtual stores.

The official spoke about how the app contains several malicious codes and requires users to provide critical permissions. According to him, the permissions could be misused for compromising users' data for surveillance.

He further pointed out that apps like BGMI are harmful to India's integrity and sovereignty, which is why the government has taken such a severe step against it.

It remains to be seen whether all devices' AI considers BGMI to be a harmful app and whether the game will be permanently banned in the days to come.