According to the ministry, the games and apps have been banned under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act because “they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, the security of the state and public order.” While still working, PUBG Mobile will be completely banned in India. Telecom operators will be ordered to blacklist the game in the country while Google Play Store and App Store will remove it from their respective app stores for Indian users. Counting in the previously banned 59 and 47 Chinese apps, the government has banned a total of 224 Chinese apps till date. Also, read- 15 Popular Chinese Apps and Their Indian and US Alternatives
List of Freshly Banned Apps in India: PUBG Mobile, PUBG Lite, and more.
The list of freshly banned apps includes PUBG Mobile, PUBG Lite, APUS Launcher, CamCard, U-Dictionary, Rules of Survival, Knives Out, WeChat, LifeAfter, and more amongst others. You can check the full list given below:
Why Have These Apps Been Banned in India?
The IT ministry says that these Chinese apps on Android and iOS platforms might have been used to steal and transmit users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers that are located outside India. They’ve not only been flagged by various public representatives, but Home Ministry’s cybercrime center, too, recommended blocking these apps. As a result, these apps are not safe with regards to user’s data privacy and security and need to be uninstalled.
Can I Download or Use PUBG Mobile or Other Banned Apps?
Notably, the freshly banned 118 apps will soon be removed from Google Play Store and Apple App Store in the country. Even if you manage to download them from other sources or have them already on your phone, they’ll stop functioning as telcos will cut the internet access for these applications and games. Earlier, the government banned 59 Chinese apps in India, including TikTok and CamScanner. Soon after, it banned 47 more Chinese apps in the country while keeping PUBG Mobile under the radar. To date, PUBG Mobile has received about 175 million downloads, with over 33 million active players in India. The game is published by the Chinese company Tencent Mobile. They recently made changes to the privacy policy, claiming that data from Indian users are stored locally, but that didn’t prevent the ban. Also, read- Chinese vs Non-Chinese: Smartphones that are ‘Made in India’
