PUBG Mobile and its return in India is a trending topic in India. Despite the ban, the game has been available in some form or the other and MeitY has now clarified that PUBG Mobile is not entirely banned in the country. The IT Ministry of India has only blocked access to a specific app and not the entire entity.
PUBG Mobile was banned in India in September and even though significant changes like the announcement of PUBG Mobile India and Krafton’s comeback in the country with its own regional office took place, the game has not been able to return in India. It faced several roadblocks on the way and no release date of this new version of PUBG Mobile has been declared to date.
According to a report by GemWire, MeitY has responded to an RTI(Right to Information) query by them. The query consisted of three questions regarding the imposed ban and relevant issues regarding the future of PUBG Mobile India. The response by the IT Ministry has revealed some interesting information about this ban.
Three questions were included in the query and one of them was as follows:
“Will a new app (PUBG Mobile India) published by a different publisher, having no ties with China and abiding by the regulations of MEITY be subjected to the previous ban placed on the PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik app? Note: The ban as stated was for a specific application: PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik, not PUBG as a whole entity.”
The response received was quite interesting as it was mentioned that the game is not “banned”. The exact response was “This Ministry has not ‘banned’ for public access the PUBG Mobile Nordic Map: Livik App under the provisions of Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.“
Also Read | How to download PUBG Mobile KR
The entire RTI Query and relevant responses are given below:
These replies suggest that as per MeitY, PUBG Mobile was never banned as an entity and was just ‘blocked’ for that particular application. This cannot be interpreted in a wrong way that PUBG Mobile India will not require clearance by MeitY, it simply suggests that public access for PUBG Mobile was never banned but it is just ‘blocked’.
This does not change the fact that PUBG Mobile remains inaccessible but has shed some light on the intricacies of this app’s banishment or blocking.
Also Read | PUBG Mobile India: RTI Query Reveals No Open Dialogue between PUBG Corp. and MeitY.
