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10 Students arrested for playing PUBG in India, illegal in Rajkot and spreading (up to a month in jail)

https://mmoculture.com/2019/03/play...n-city-bans-games-and-issues-arrest-warnings/
The police department of Rajkot, the 4th largest city in the state of Gujarat, India, recently announced it has banned PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds anf PUBG M, along with the very controversial Momo Challenge until the end of March 2019. According to reports, the games are being demonized by the local police and parents. In another report, it seems that there are already 10 arrests made. There is speculation that the ban will soon spread to other cities in India as well. The punishment is said to include a fine or a 1-month jail sentence.


Second link for more context from a few days ago: https://www.rt.com/news/453546-india-pubg-ban-arrest/
has attracted a backlash from parents and police, who now want the “addictive” and “harmful” game banned for good.
Just ahead of the first anniversary of its release, Indian law enforcers are accusing the popular game of inciting violence and distracting kids from their studies, even pushing for a large-scale prohibition of the “battle-royal” style shooter.

Following numerous complaints by parents, a temporary ban on the mobile app was first announced by police in metropolitan Rajkot, with some other cities multiplayer-game soon following suit. While the current ban only extends until March 30, the police and children’s rights watchdog are petitioning New Delhi to ban the game altogether.
Rajkot Police Commissioner Manoj Agrawal’s statement included instructions to turn in those caught defying the ban to the police for prosecution, which could result in gamers being slapped with fines or up to a month in jail.

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So it looks like issues with "violent games" is spreading around India with a major state looking at a total ban and one city within that state actually going all in with a banning.

Violators can be forced to pay fines or a punishment of up to 1-month in jail, either of which are types of sentencing that can restrict you in many career and job sectors in india after some reformed regulation from iirc 2014. So that could cause some issues, especially since the 10 arrested in this case were university students and not middle school teenagers.

Seems a bit overkill considering the games no one seems to be complaining about that are being sold there, but then again the issue seems to be less with the content of the game and the fact that's it's hugely popular but also happens to have a decent deal of violence in it.

If the game was niche or was only a mild success with maybe 1-2 million sold across the country this likely wouldn't be too much of an issue, but it has sold more than that, in addition, it's free to play and able to run on several low-end phones, a sector really popular in India at the moment that's started messing with local phone companies like Lava and Micromax.
 
People will try to censor what they don' t like. This goes for all walks and paths of life.

Sometimes the opponents of your ideology are actually your best allies.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I feel like no one over the age of 17 plays video games in India if they straight up ban people from playing a video game. On a side note, Windows is obviously an OS that's used across the globe and they have Cortana built in as an AI, who is from an M rated FPS. What's next? Ban the use of Cortana on all Windows devices because it resembles a violent video game?
 
Windows is obviously an OS that's used across the globe and they have Cortana built in as an AI, who is from an M rated FPS. What's next? Ban the use of Cortana on all Windows devices because it resembles a violent video game?

It's a voice.

Even in india, this seems unlikely and too convoluted.
 

GribbleGrunger

Dreams in Digital
Apparently anyone can go to the cops and report anyone, which may make this messy:



Citizens being encouraged to report their fellow citizens. This is going on in Britain to ... This is only going to get worse and the ramifications are frightening. I often see people saying the 1984 comparison is nonsense. It isn't.
 

Ovek

7Member7
Considering how addicted and consumed kids and even really dumb adults can get playing PBUG, Fortnight or Apex I'm not at all surprised.
 
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