The fate of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) will be determined in the next few weeks, with a senior official from the Union government’s cybersecurity division — responsible for coordinating with law enforcement agencies — claiming that the agency has recommended the app be discontinued.
Factors like the entry of Pakistani national Seema Haider — who reportedly met her partner Sachin Meena on the platform — into India and other crimes that have been linked to the game have alerted authorities, with sources suggesting that data collected through BGMI could potentially lead to cyber-attacks and compromise the country’s security.
Sources said the game’s servers are in the US but agencies want to be sure that there is no movement of data to other servers situated elsewhere.
A detailed query has been sent to Krafton and the company’s response is awaited.
A crucial meeting scheduled next week is expected to clear the air. The company will also present its case, and central agencies will review their stance before deciding the game’s fate.
Efforts to enhance security features have been mentioned, with the company planning to introduce additional measures. Instances like Seema Haider’s illegal entry into India, as well as a teenager killing his mother over a dispute related to the game, have raised concerns in an analysis done by an Intelligence agency. While BGMI was briefly unblocked on various app stores, pending reviews and concerns about user harm and addiction remain.
News18 had reported first last year that BGMI will be unbanned soon.
“This is a 3-month trial approval of #BGMI after it has complied with issues of server locations n data security etc. We will keep a close watch on other issues of User harm, Addiction etc in next 3 months before a final decision is taken (sic),” the Union IT minister had said in a tweet on May 19.
According to a report of an Intelligence agency and communication from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), there were violations that could create cyber threats by harvesting user data for profiling to carry out targeted cyber-attacks on Indian users.
The report also said 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.
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