Garena Free Fire, the popular battle royale game, was banned in India on February 14 along with 53 other apps by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The app was already missing from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store a day before news of the ban broke. Singapore-based developer Garena has now provided an update on the situation.
“We are aware that Free Fire is currently unavailable in the Google Play and iOS app stores in India and that the game is currently not operable for some users in the country,” Garena said in a statement. “We are working to address this situation, and we apologise to our users for any inconvenience,” it added.
Meanwhile, Free Fire MAX, the higher-graphic version of the popular game continues to be up on the Play Store, seemingly unaffected by the ban. Free Fire was one of India’s most downloaded games in 2021, according to an App Annie report. It had taken up the space created by PUBG Mobile after it was banned in September 2020.
In 2020, the government had also banned TikTok and other popular short video apps from China. When TikTok was banned on June 29, 2020, the list included around 59 apps in total. Other popular apps on the list were Shareit, Shein (the fashion website and app), Xiaomi Mi Community, Clash of Kings, Weibo, Likee, etc.
MeitY had banned the earlier apps under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, which states that the government has the “Power to issue directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource.”
Free Fire’s most recent statement suggests that the game could be back on the Play Store and App Store soon, but given that PUBG Mobile and TikTok are still banned.
