NEW DELHI, July 29 (Reuters) – India blocked a popular battle-royale-style game from Krafton Inc ( 259960.KS ), a South Korean company backed by China’s Tencent ( 0700.HK ), using a law it has invoked since 2020 to ban Chinese apps over national security concerns, a source said.
Battlegrounds Mobile India ( BGMI ) was removed from Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google Play store and Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) App Store starting Thursday evening in India.
The removal of BGMI, which had over 100 million users in India, comes on the heels of India’s 2020 ban on another Krafton title, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).
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The PUBG crackdown was part of New Delhi’s ban on more than 100 mobile apps of Chinese origin, following a months-long border standoff between the nuclear-armed rivals.
The ban has since been expanded to cover more than 300 apps, including the popular gaming app “Free Fire,” owned by Singaporean technology group Sea Ltd ( SE.N ).
Tencent held a 13.5% stake in Krafton at the end of March through an investment vehicle, according to Krafton’s regulatory filing.
Krafton shares fell more than 9% on the news on Friday, then pared losses to trade up 4.5% in afternoon trade in Seoul. The company said in May that India accounted for a high single-digit percentage of its revenue in the first quarter of this year.
A Google spokesperson said it blocked the game following a government directive, while India’s IT ministry and Apple did not respond to requests for comment.
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 in India’s two major app stores.
“The government does not intervene in which apps can work and which cannot. They intervene in digital security and privacy issues, and BGMI complies with all guidelines. MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) has also pointed out that PUBG and BGMI are different games.” Krafton India CEO Sean Hyunil Sohn told news portal TechCrunch earlier this week.
‘CHINESE INFLUENCE’
India invoked a section of its IT law to impose the ban, the source, who had direct knowledge of the matter but declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.
Section 69A of India’s IT Act allows the government to block public access to content in the interest of national security, among other reasons. Orders issued under the section are generally confidential in nature.
Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) and non-profit organization Prahar had repeatedly asked the government to investigate the “China influence” of BGMI, Prahar president Abhay Mishra said. SJM is the economic wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an influential Hindu nationalist group close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party.
“In the so-called new avatar, BGMI was no different from the old PUBG with Tencent still controlling it in the background,” Mishra said.
The ban drew strong reactions online from popular players in India on Twitter and YouTube.
“I hope our government understands that thousands of sportspersons and content creators and their lives depend on BGMI,” tweeted Abhijeet Andhare, a Twitter user with over 92,000 followers.
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Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil in New Delhi, Joyce Lee in Seoul; Additional reporting by Nupur Anand; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Clarence Fernandez and Muralikumar Anantharaman
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