Chinese social media and gaming group Tencent said Thursday that it takes protecting user privacy and data seriously, in response to India’s ban on Chinese apps. The company said it would work with the Indian authorities to ensure the continued availability of its applications in India.
India has banned 118 other mobile apps, mostly Chinese, including Tencent’s popular PUBG Mobile video game, the government said on Wednesday, citing concerns about data security.
For tens of millions of Indian gamers, Tencent’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) mobile video game was a welcome distraction from the coronavirus pandemic.
Then the Indian government said it was disconnecting.
“When everything was closed, PUBG’s interactive features gave me a semblance of real-world social interaction. It was a stress buster for me,” said 26-year-old Mustafa Scentwala, who lives in India’s financial hub, Mumbai. and played PUBG Mobile. with nine friends for hours every day.
PUBG Mobile, part of the “battle royale” genre in which a group of players fight each other until only one fighter remains alive, became a victim of geopolitics this week when the Indian government said it would ban it, along with more than a hundred other Chinese apps, as tensions with Beijing mounted.
India’s technology ministry said the apps were a threat to India’s sovereignty and security.
The ban is the latest measure against Chinese companies in India amid a months-long standoff over a disputed border, but timing and targeting were particularly difficult for young people. They have been using the game to keep in touch with friends while schools and universities are closed to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
© Thomson Reuters 2020
Should the government explain why Chinese apps were banned? We talked about this on Orbital, our weekly tech podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.
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