BGMI ban: Is Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) a Chinese app? | 91mobiles.com

Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) was recently banned in the country by the government. As a result, the game is no longer available on Google Play Store and App Store. At the time, it was unclear why the game was banned as there wasn’t a clear announcement from Krafton or the Indian government. However, a new report claims that BGMI was banned due to various issues including data being shared with servers located in China, either directly or directly. This seems pretty similar to the PUBG Mobile ban in India that happened in 2020. However, Krafton was able to rebrand and launch PUBG Mobile in the country as Battlegrounds Mobile India back in 2021.

Is BGMI a Chinese app?

BGMI is developed and published by Krafton, which is a South Korean company. That said, Chinese tech and gaming giant Tencent owns 13.5 percent stake in Krafton. For the uninitiated, Tencent was the original publisher of PUBG Mobile. However, following the ban of the game in India, Krafton took over the publishing rights and relaunched the game as Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI). 

However, the company failed to bring the game’s servers to India. Per the government, the data is being transferred to the servers in China, which can be used with malicious intent. This reportedly led to the BGMI ban in India under Section 69A of India’s IT law that restricts the app’s access in the country to protect the “sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State”. 

It is the same act that was used for the PUBG Mobile ban in India in 2020, along with 54 other apps that had servers in China. This was followed by Free Fire ban in the country due to the same reason.

Were BGMI servers a threat to security?

According to News18, a report from a central intelligence agency and a notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) led to the ban of BGMI. The report from the central intelligence agency claims that BGMI has several violations that lead to cyber threats by utilizing user data. The collected data can apparently be used to launch targeted cyber-attacks on Indians.

As a result, the government asked Google to remove BGMI from the Play Store. A senior government official said, “The analysis also showed that this application has malicious code and also acquires a host of critical permissions, which could be misused for compromising user data for surveillance through camera/microphone, location tracking, and malicious network activities.”

The official also said that many previously banned Chinese apps have returned to Indian app stores after rebranding, but they don’t have any servers in India. They said, “These apps have re-launched in India just like old wine in a new bottle but they didn’t install any server in India. Also, they collect data that can be misused like location, audio, and access to other critical information. BGMI is also a rebranded version of PUBG.” 

Will BGMI relaunch in India?

This seems highly unlikely anytime soon despite BGMI developer Krafton saying it is working on bringing the game back to India. In a recent statement, the developer said, “At Krafton, the security and privacy of our user data are of utmost importance to us. We have always been compliant with all the laws and regulations in India, including data protection laws and regulations, and will continue abiding by them.”

Additionally, TalkEsport‘s sources have said that Krafton has “presented its case to the government on the independence of its operations and data from Chinese influence.” The company has further said that player data and other matters related to data privacy are handled responsibly. 

The Indian agencies, meanwhile, are constantly monitoring banned apps to make sure they don’t relaunch in India, with servers located in China. An official working at MEITY said, “Such apps are detrimental to sovereignty and integrity of India and can be very dangerous for the Indian security grid.”