PUBG Banned in India: Player Unknown Battle Ground, Ludo World Among 118 Chinese Apps Banned, Action Comes After Fresh Chinese Incursion in Ladakh
The PUBG game now has more than 600 million downloads and 50 million active players globally, not including the Chinese mainland where a rebranded version of the game is called 'Game for Peace'. PUBG has millions of users, especially young, in India.
New Delhi, September 2: In yet another surgical strike on Chinese apps, the Indian government on Wednesday banned 118 apps, including the immensely popular PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile, Baidu and several VPNs that allowed access to TikTok that was earlier banned. The action came after the fresh Chinese incursion attempts in Indian territory at Pangong Tso in eastern Ladakh.
The PUBG game now has more than 600 million downloads and 50 million active players globally, not including the Chinese mainland where a rebranded version of the game is called 'Game for Peace'. PUBG has millions of users, especially young, in India. PUBG Banned in India: Gaming App Among 118 Other Mobile Apps Banned by Modi Government; Check Complete List.
The ban on PUBG came as it announced the arrival of a new gaming era with its 1.0 version, along with global mobile esports tournament PUBG Mobile Global Championship (PMGC) with a grand prize pool of $2 million (about Rs 15 crore). Earlier, the government barred 47 Chinese apps from operating in the country, which were largely clones of the previously 59 apps banned in June.
On June 29, the government banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, WeChat and UC Browser and Xiaomi's Mi Community over national security concerns amid the border tussle in Ladakh which led to the death of 20 Indian soldiers in the Galwan Valley clash with Chinese PLA troops.
"These measures have been undertaken since there is credible information that these apps are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order," the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology statement had said.
According to the ministry, the move would safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile users. Other Chinese apps in the banned list were Club Factory, SHAREit, Likee, Mi Video Call (Xiaomi), Weibo, Baidu, BIGO LIVE and more.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 02, 2020 05:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).