The Lebanese army has reportedly issued a decree banning its soldiers from using the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) game, an internal memo shows.
The Lebanese Army Leadership, the 1st Artillery Regiment, issued an internal memo to it soldiers prohibiting them from downloading or using the PUBG MOBILE or any similar game.
The reason given was that these type of games allow communication and connection with people from several countries in the world that might include the “Zionist enemy,” according to the memo.
According to the memorandum signed by the Army Commander General Joseph Aoun on January 4, that during the past few years “games with the military nature that allow a group of people to play individually or collectively, and fight each other as part of a confrontation. The most prominent of which is PUBG MOBILE game, which is available as an app on smartphones”.
Players are pictured as they attend the PUBG Global Invitational 2018, the first official esports tournament for the computer game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in Berlin, Germany. (Reuters)
Lebanese local sites had published the memo which pointed out that “the person can choose to play individually or to be part of up to 4 people team. Where the player chooses the members of his team from his friends or the game application randomly form the team. Thus the team can be formed of several people from any country around the world, including the Zionist enemy”.
The memo also mentioned that “During the game the team members can communicate through texting or voice,” that’s why the Army leadership prohibited downloading the PUBG MOBILE and the similar games and play it.”
The memo requested the military personnel who received this memo to circulate “not to download such games,” noting that the army leadership “will take strict disciplinary actions against the violators”.
PUBG Mobile is one of the most popular games globally since being introduced last year and the app has been downloaded over 100 million times in four months after its launch. During the first week of the launch, it became the most downloaded game in nearly 100 countries with nearly 14 million users daily.
