In the last few days, the Ministry of Electronics and IT branch of the Government Of India have issued a ban order on applications of Chinese origin, on the grounds that these apps were transferring sensitive data of Indians to servers in foreign countries such as China, through countries like Singapore and Hong Kong, and have also directed top app stores including Google’s Play Store to block these applications.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has recommended a ban on 54 Chinese mobile applications, including the popular battle royale game Garena Free Fire. To clarify, Garena Free Fire is a Singapore-based IP and the developer is not from China. Free Fire was one of the most downloaded games in India last year, and the app has already been removed from the Google Play Store and App Store in India.
Here is a complete list of games that got banned this time:
- Garena Free Fire- Illuminate
- Tencent Xriver
- Conquer Online – MMORPG Game
- Conquer Online Il
- EVE Echoes
- Extraordinary Ones
- Badlanders
- Stick Fight: The Game Mobile
- Twilight Pioneers
- Astracraft
- Onmyoji Chess
- Onmyoji Arena
- Isoland 2: Ashes of Time Lite
- Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade
Since June 2020, the Indian government has banned a total of around 224 Chinese apps starting with about 59 apps in the start of the pandemic, including popular applications like TikTok, Shareit, WeChat, Helo, Likee, UC News, Bigo Live, UC Browser, ES File Explorer, and Mi Community.
This is not the most recent attempt by the GOI to ban content on the basis of them being ‘prejudicial’ to India’s sovereignty, integrity and national security. Earlier last week, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had informed the Rajya Sabha that it had blocked 60 Pakistan backed YouTube Channels that were circulating fake news against the Government.
