The China link: How an intel agency's report, letter from MHA triggered ban on popular game BGMI

New Delhi: It was a report by a central intelligence agency and communication from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) that triggered a ban on popular battle royale game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).

The report talked about violations that can create cyber threats by harvesting user data for profiling to carry out targeted cyber-attacks on Indian users.

According to a senior government official, the app has various issues but most importantly, it is communicating with servers directly or indirectly located in China. Sources also confirmed that other apps which have “rebranded" are also communicating with servers in China and are under scrutiny.

The move to ask Google to remove the application from the Play Store was taken after multiple rounds of analysis by Indian agencies.

“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,” a senior government official told News18 on the condition of anonymity.

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“Such apps are detrimental to sovereignty and integrity of India and can be very dangerous for the Indian security grid. The inputs were shared with us and immediate action was taken without any delay from the government,” an official working in Meity told News18.

Developer Krafton has said it is working to bring the game back. In a recent statement, the company said that it is committed to the Indian market and is positive about the opportunities in the country. “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."

Meanwhile, Google has officially said it has received an official order from the government to remove the game. “On receipt of the order, following the established process, we have notified the affected developer and have blocked access to the app that remained available on Play Store in India,” it said.

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Rebranding won’t work

According to the senior officials responsible for analysing such applications, banned Chinese Apps have rebranded in India but without any server in the country. “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," a senior official said. Earlier too, the government banned a few Chinese Apps which were rebranded and launched with new names.

Constant monitoring

The government, through agencies, keeps a strict eye on Chinese apps and analyses them from time to time.

The government has been constantly banning Chinese apps that allegedly violate various Indian norms. In February this year, 54 additional apps of Chinese origin were banned, highlighting that they pose a “threat to India’s security” as the border tensions continue.

Most of these were replicas of apps that were banned by the government post the Galwan Valley clash but had re-branded and re-launched in India quietly.

With the addition of 54 more banned apps, the total reaches around 324, which includes the famous Tik Tok and PUBG (older version) which was forced to collaborate with companies based out of China due to the ban in India.

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