Update: The developer has issued a statement on the ban saying they are aware of the situation and working to resolve the issue. It is not clear if the game will make its way back into the market or not. The Ministry of Home Affairs has recommended a ban on 54 Chinese mobile applications, including the popular game Garena Free Fire. Interestingly Garena Free Fire is Singapore-based and the developer is not from China. The game was one of the most downloaded games in India last year, and had taken up the space created by PUBG Mobile after it was banned in September 2020. The app was already removed from the Google Play Store and App Store in India, as indianexpress.com had reported on Sunday. According to PTI, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will formally issue a notification banning the operations of these apps in India. 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." This is usually when the government is "satisfied that it is necessary or expedient to do in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above or for investigation of any offence." For TikTok and PUBG, the government had said that these were being banned “in view of the emergent nature of threats" as "they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state and public order." PUBG was banned in September 2020, along with 117 other apps. A third list of banned apps came out in November 2020, which included a total of 43 apps. AliExpress was the most prominent name in that particular list. The full list of 54 blocked Chinese apps is provided below: 1 Beauty Camera: Sweet Selfie HD 2 Beauty Camera - Selfie Camera 3 Equalizer - Bass Booster & Volume EQ & Virtualizer 4 Music Player- Music.Mp3 Player 5 Equalizer & Bass Booster - Music Volume EQ 6 Music Plus - MP3 Player 7 Equalizer Pro - Volume Booster & Bass Booster 8 Video Player Media All Format 9 Music Player - Equalizer & MP3 10 Volume Booster - Loud Speaker & Sound Booster 11 Music Player - MP3 Player 12 CamCard for SalesForce Ent 13 Isoland 2: Ashes of Time Lite 14 Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade IS/APUS Security HD (Pad Version) 16 Parallel Space Lite 32 Support 17 Viva Video Editor - Snack Video Maker with Music 18 Nice video baidu 19 Tencent Xriver 20 Onmyoji Chess 21 Onmyoji Arena 22 AppLock 23 Dual Space Lite - Multiple Accounts & Clone App 24 Dual Space Pro - Multiple Accounts & App Cloner 25 DualSpace Lite - 32Bit Support 26 Dual Space - 32Bit Support 27 Dual Space - 64Bit Support 28 Dual Space Pro - 32Bit Support 29 Conquer Online - MMORPG Game 30 Conquer Online Il 31 Live Weather & Radar - Alerts 32 Notes- Color Notepad, Notebook 33 MP3 Cutter - Ringtone Maker & Audio Cutter 34 Voice Recorder & Voice Changer 35 Barcode Scanner - QR Code Scan 36 Lica Cam - selfie camera app 37 EVE Echoes 38 Astracraft 39 UU Game Booster-network solution for high ping 40 Extraordinary Ones 41 Badlanders 42 Stick Fight: The Game Mobile 43 Twilight Pioneers 44 CuteU: Match With The World 45 Small World-Enjoy groupchat and video chat 46 CuteU Pro 47 FancvU - Video Chat & Meetup 48 Real: Go Live. Make Friends 49 MoonChat: Enjoy Video Chats 50 Real Lite -video to live! 51 Wink: Connect Now 52 FunChat Meet People Around You 53 FancyU pro - Instant Meetup through Video chat! 54 Garena Free Fire - Illuminate
