The Indian government has taken up action against Chinese origin software/apps again and has added more of them to the banned list. This time, there have been 54 more apps banned on Google Play Store which include both Chinese and non-Chinese apps. The main caveat here is the ban on Garena’s Free Fire - Illuminate whose parent company Sea Ltd is currently not based in China but Singapore (although it was born in China).

Most of the mobile apps banned by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of the Government of India include those belonging to large China technology companies like Tencent, Alibaba, and NetEase. Many of the apps are also cloned variants of those banned by the Indian government back in 2020. There has not yet been an official announcement from the Indian Ministry of Electronics & IT regarding this, still, these applications have already been removed from Google Play Store and iOS App Store.

https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1493083495056371712?s=20&t=3FelJ_Fvmk_HvV2kQ7I8Aw

This will be the 5th time that the Government of India has taken steps to remove applications from the public domain and Garena’s Free Fire - Illuminate will join the infamous list of the high profile banned list that includes TikTok, UC Browser, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Shareit, and even its past direct competitor PUBG: Mobile. While Krafton was able to re-launch the PUBG: Mobile as Battlegrounds Mobile India after complying with the guidelines of the Indian government, there is still no clarity regarding what led to the ban of Free Fire - Illuminate. More details can be only ascertained after the Indian Ministry of Electronics & IT reveals more information.

Surprisingly, not all Garena applications on the Google Play Store have been removed. Garena Free Fire MAX which is a high-end version of the banned game, ‘Booyah!’, which is an online streaming platform, and Garena Fantasy Town which is a Farm Simulator game is still available on the android platforms. Some are speculating that Krafton’s lawsuit against Garena’s Free Fire - Illuminate may have played some role in this ban. We have to wait for the official announcement from the Indian government to know more regarding this situation.