The Indian government has blocked access to Krafton’s battle-royale game BGMI based on the same provision of its IT law that it has invoked to ban Chinese apps on national security grounds from 2020, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.Section 69A of the Indian IT Act allows the government to block public access to content, inter alia, in the interest of national security. Orders issued under this section are generally confidential in nature.
Alphabet Inc’s Google on Thursday blocked access to a popular battle-royale game from South Korean developer Krafton, citing an Indian government order. Krafton shares fell more than 9% on Friday after the news, quickly paring losses to a 5.7% drop.The US tech giant said in a statement that India had ordered a ban on Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), forcing it to remove the app from its Play Store.The game’s website revealed that it has more than 100 million users in India. The blocking comes after India banned another Krafton title, Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), in 2020.
“Upon receipt of the order, following a process in place, we have notified the affected developer and blocked access to the app,” a Google spokesperson said.BGMI was also unavailable on Apple Inc’s App Store on Thursday evening in India.The reason for the block was not immediately clear.In Seoul, a Krafton spokesperson said the developer was talking to the relevant authorities and companies to find out the exact situation regarding the suspension of the two major app stores in India.
Local representatives for Apple and India’s IT ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours. A source with direct knowledge of the matter said Google received a government takedown order within the last 24 hours. India cited security risks in banning PUBG, but the move was widely seen as a fallout from deteriorating trade relations with China. At the time, China’s Tencent held the publishing rights for PUBG in India.The crackdown was part of New Delhi’s ban on more than 100 mobile apps of Chinese origin following a months-long border dispute between the nuclear-armed rivals.The ban has since expanded to more than 300 apps.
