Multiple posts have been circulating on social media claiming that online gaming app PUBG is a North Korean app. Hence, posts claim that because of its North Korean roots, Government of India cannot ban PUBG.
The text on the picture read: “Good news for all PUBG lovers | YouTube CEO Elon Musk announced “If PUBG banned in India North Korea will disconnect partnership with Tencent (China) and have partnership with Patanjali company. So if it ban it will come all set after 2-3 days with mob lynching and Rafale plane updates.” So no worry about ban as India can only ban Tencent not PUBG as PUBG is North Korean.”
More such posts can be seen here and here.
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FACT CHECK
We fact checked the claims and found them to be false.
The red flag in the first two posts were some very glaring elements such as ‘YouTube CEO Elon Musk’ and the image of Jeff Bezos when the post actually talks about Elon Musk.
A simple Google search reveals that YouTube CEO is Susan Wojcicki, as also mentioned in the below Forbes article.
A Google reverse image search reveals that the man in the picture above is Jeff Bezos.
The quote attributed to YouTube CEO in the post was also grammatically incorrect which was another red flag.
After these basic errors, we checked whether PUBG is a North Korean app, as the posts above claim. We Googled ‘PUBG origin’ and found the below The Indian Express article from July 31, 2020.
It states: PUBG is a battle royale game developed by PUBG Corporation, a subsidiary of South Korean video game company Bluehole.
The article also states that in 2018, After becoming extremely popular on the PC side, Tencent Games, from China and the PUBG Corporation partnered up to release a mobile version of the game for Android and iOS in 2018.
This indicates that the Chinese firm Tencent Games does not independently control PUBG. In the entire article or other media reports, there is no mention of North Korea.
This article by Times Now states that Tencent owns only 10% stake in South Korean PUBG Corporation, formerly known as Bluehole, which is the parent organization of PUBG.
We also then visited the official website for Bluehole, which took us to krafton.com. In the history section, we found all the information as also mentioned in the articles.
One of the first events in the timeline was Bluehole setting up in Pangyo in 2007. Google Maps shows that the place is in South Korea.
On the history page for 2017, Bluehole talks about releasing PUBG and changing its corporate name to PUBG Corporation.
In 2018, it mentions its strategic partnership with Tencent and changing its name to Krafton.
We traced PUBG’s entire history through its website and media reports and all sources confirmed that the app was developed by a South Korean company that later tied up with Chinese firm Tencent.
Hence, PUBG is not a North Korean App and the claims in the above posts are false.
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