PUBG Mobile India: MeitY's official stand through alleged RTI report

PUBG Mobile has been among the hot topics in the Indian mobile community for a while now. The game enjoyed a massive player base in the country before it was hit by the extremely disheartening news concerning the title's suspension alongside 117 other applications. The applications were blocked mainly due to security and privacy reasons.

Since then, the game's fans and players have been actively following all the news, updates, and developments. In the last few days, there has been a development regarding PUBG Mobile India in response to an RTI.

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PUBG Mobile India: MeitY's official stand through alleged RTI report

GemWire had filed an RTI on December 17th, 2020, seeking information from the government about PUBG Mobile's suspension in India and its current status. The RTI contained three queries, and the replies have answered numerous questions surrounding the title.

Image via Gemwire. gg

The response has revealed that PUBG Mobile was not banned for public access and was contrarily only blocked by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. However, the game would still require the government's green signal for its comeback in the country.

Also, only blocking applies to the specific application, which implies that restriction isn't directed towards the game as a whole but only the particular applications mentioned on the list, i.e., PUBG Mobile global version and PUBG Mobile Lite.

The answers also reveal no formal dialogue between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Krafton/PUBG, which suggests that Indian fans will have to wait for a while for the game's comeback in the country.

These were the queries put forth by GemWire along with the individual responses:

Query 1: Will a new app (PUBG Mobile India) published by a different publisher, having no ties with China and abiding by the regulations of MEITY, be subjected to the previous ban placed on the PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik app? Note: The ban, as stated, was for a specific application: PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik, not PUBG as a whole entity.

"This Ministry has not 'banned' for public access the PUBG Mobile Nordic Map: Livik App under the provisions of Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000."

Query 2: Follow up to the first question, if the ban implies to the new application, on what basis would that be?

"Blocking applies to a specific App only."

Query 3: Is there an open dialogue taking place between MEITY and PUBG Corporation/Krafton INC?

"No formal dialogue with PUBG/Krafton is held by this Ministry."