Garena Free Fire game banned in India: Govt banned 54 Chinese apps including Garena Free Fire and AppLock from App Store and Google Play Store | Gaming News

Garena Free Fire banned in India! Govt banned 54 Chinese apps; App Store, Google Play Store react

In a big shock to gamers, India has blocked 54 Chinese apps- Garena Free Fire banned in India order too was issued by the government today and it has been removed from App Store and Google Play Store.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Aug 22 2022, 10:11 IST
Garena Free Fire
Garena Free Fire banned in India order was issued today. It is part of the list of 54 Chinese apps banned in India. (ff.garena.com)
Garena Free Fire
Garena Free Fire banned in India order was issued today. It is part of the list of 54 Chinese apps banned in India. (ff.garena.com)

One of the most famous and widely played royale battle games, Garena Free Fire has been banned by the central government. Yes, in a shock to gamers, Garena Free Fire banned order has been issued today. The government has banned as many as 54 Chinese apps citing security threat to the country. Garena Free Fire App has even been removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. And why was Garena Free Fire banned? As per the report shared by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) these 54 Chinese apps are either cloned version or having similar functionalities, privacy issues and security threats as was the case in the previously blocked 267 apps by the government in the year 2020.

However what needs to be noted is that, Garena Free Fire Max, which was released in the year 2021 by the developers of Garena Free Fire seeing its popularity can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. But, it has been removed from the Apple App Store. That is, Garena Free Fire and Garena Free Fire Max have been blocked on the Apple App Store. For Android users, only Garena Free Fire has been removed from the Google Play Store.

The developers of Garena Free Fire, or the app stores, have not yet given any statement on the same. It can be noted that the apps were pulled down from the App Store and Google Play Store on Saturday, February 12, a day before the Government of India passed the order against these 54 Chinese apps.

Users took to Twitter on Sunday to inform about the same. Take for instance this reaction: . "UPDATE: #GarenaFreeFire gets removed from India's Google Playstore • Follows Free Fire and Free Fire MAX being removed from India's Apple AppStore earlier today • Reason unknown • KRAFTON recently filed a lawsuit against Garena, Google, and Apple re: copyright infringement," one of the Twitter user tweeted.

Prior to this, the Indian government initially blocked 59 apps on 29 June 2020 followed by 47 related/cloning apps on 10 August 2020, thereafter 118 apps were blocked on September 1, 2020 and later 43 apps were blocked on November 19, 2020.

As per the information, these 54 Chinese apps banned today allegedly obtain various critical permissions and collect sensitive user data. These collected real-time data are being misused and transmitted to servers located in hostile country.

In addition there are other serious concerns as some of these apps can carry out espionage and surveillance activities via camera/mic, accessing fine location (GPS) and do malicious network activity similar to previously blocked apps. Therefore, MeitY has issued Interim directions for the blocking of 54 Chinese Apps in India.

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First Published Date: 14 Feb, 14:12 IST
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