Garena Free Fire banned by Google from Google Play Store in India; here is why
Garena Free Fire banned: In the morning hours of February 14, Garena Free Fire was named as one of the 54 Chinese apps to be banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The government order was placed as these apps posed a threat to the national security of India. And while all apps were soon removed from Google Play Store, Garena Free Fire ban was a bit of an anomaly. Why? Because it was removed from the Play Store one day earlier, on Sunday, February 13! As puzzling as this sounds, this reveals deeper issues currently going on with Sea Limited, the parent company of Garena Free Fire. A month ago, KRAFTON, the publisher of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) filed a lawsuit against Garena. It appears that the lawsuit might have had something to do with the removal of the application from not only Google Play Store but also Apple App Store.
The entire situation around Garena Free Fire is quite complicated from the looks of it. And there are multiple layers which make the eventual removal from Google Play Store intriguing to say the least. First, the ties of Garena Free Fire with China are not as explicit as the other 53 apps named. Sea Limited is a Singapore-based company and its founder Forrest Li, although born in China, is presently a citizen of Singapore. This information is important since Free Fire escaped the ban in 2020, which saw extremely popular PUBG Mobile and TikTok banned from India. Now, while that is not enough to ascertain the lack of Garena Free Fire’s Chinese connection, it does raise a question over the timing of the ban. Having said that, PUBG Mobile is actually owned by a South Korean company, but it had links with China.
It was no secret that Garena Free Fire got entangled in a legal battle with KRAFTON a
Read more on tech.hindustantimes.com
