Singapore demands clarity on Free Fire ban in India

Regarding Free Fire's ban, Reuters has revealed that the Singaporean government has reached out to the Indian government to discuss the actual reason for banning the popular battle royale game.

The ban had an adverse effect on Sea Limited's stocks in the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). Sea Limited is a company based in Singapore that is the parent company of Garena, Free Fire’s publisher.

The Free Fire ban came as a complete shock to the Indian mobile gaming community. The game was taken down by the government along with 53 other mobile applications.

---

Free Fire's ban and its repercussions

Mobile applications with Chinese roots and clones of previously banned applications were taken down by the Indian government on 14 February 2022. Since the game did not fit either of the causes, many players were confused. It was later revealed that the battle royale title was banned as it was a threat to the national security of the country.

Since the game was not of Chinese origin and was a Singaporean app, government officials from Singapore reached out to India to ask whether the ban was unintentional. However, it is not yet known whether the Indian government has responded to the query.

Share price of Garena's parent company crashed (Image via Sportskeeda)

The company that was majorly affected by the ban was Sea Limited. As per Reuters, Sea Limited gave the following explanation when the game was officially banned:

"We do not transfer to, or store any data of our Indian users in, China,"

It further stressed that the game complies with the rules and regulations of Indian law. The shares of Sea Limited (SE:NYSE) plummeted by a whopping 18.56% followed by the ban of the battle royale title. Sea Limited also reached out to India’s technology ministry to clarify the exact cause of the ban.

The only silver lining now is that Free Fire MAX, the enhanced version of the banned game, is still available for download on the Google Play Store. Since the ban, this version has become the most downloaded mobile game in India.