PUBG Mobile recently became a part of parliamentary monsoon session discussion as Shri. V. Vijayasai Reddy, a member of parliament, posed a few questions to MeitY regarding the game’s ban, its involvement in a homicide media report and actions taken by the responsible ministries to block apps similar to the banned ones.
It is a known fact that PUBG Mobile is banned in India for more than two years now. The game has bid adieu to India in 2020 but has become a topic of discussion yet again as some questions were posed regarding its involvement in a case and the ban as a whole.
PUBG Mobile was banned alongside a ton of other applications in the three ban waves and as per the questions asked to MeitY, the availability of such rebranded apps, the third-party stores making them available to the public and especially, the involvement of PUBG in a criminal case.
The murder case cited here is of a teen shooting his mother after she stopped him from playing PUBG Mobile. This horrific incident led to National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to write a letter to MeitY seeking explanation of how PUBG Mobile is available for minors despite the game being banned in the country.
This case is again cited in the questioning of parliament member. The entire set of questions is attached below:
MeitY has responded to these questions in the parliamentary session and provided three pointers to answer each and every question asked. They have said that all of the queries regarding the surfacing of rebranded banned apps or similarly functioning applications are forwarded to Ministry of Home Affairs for further action.
The appearance of PUBG in the country will be a “matter of investigation by LEAs” but the game is banned in India since 2020, MeitY said in their second statement.
To answer the doubts raised on efforts to ban such apps, MeitY said that official stores such as Google Play and Apple App Store were already directed to remove the banned applications. Several ISPs in India were also given directions to block the connection to such domains by DoT.
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