Singapore has raised concerns to the Indian ministry of external affairs regarding the sudden ban on Free Fire, according to a report by Reuters.
Free Fire was banned by the Indian government earlier this month along with 53 other “Chinese” applications. Delhi has so far banned over 300 Chinese applications due to alleged data privacy concerns. The ban on Free Fire was surprising, however, as the game has been developed by Singapore-based Garena, whose parent company, Sea Ltd., is also based in the same country.
The report, which cites four sources including two Indian government officials, said that Singapore has asked as to why the game was targeted in a crackdown on Chinese applications even though Sea is based in the Southeast Asian country. Singapore has also asked if the app was banned “unintentionally.”
Singapore’s concerns have been transferred to India’s information technology department, according to the report. Indian government officials told Reuters that they weren’t aware if Delhi would be replying to the concerns.
What adds further confusion to this ban is that Free Fire MAX, an upgraded version of the game which uses the same servers, hasn’t been targeted in the ban wave. The game is still available on the Google Play Store in India. Apple’s App Store has removed Free Fire and Free Fire MAX, however.
Following the news of the game’s ban, Sea’s shares tanked more than 18 percent on Feb. 14, wiping out $16 billion from the tech group’s market value.
Players in India who already had the game downloaded have largely been able to play the game despite the ban. While new iOS users aren’t able to download the game, Android users can still install it by manually getting the APK, which is available on Free Fire’s official website.
