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Comment by modi15 | Hacker News Reader

Its Indian version of tabloid news. AFAIK some local enforcement agency passed a rule banning PUBG near to school exams.

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News18 is not a tabloid website.

But just in case you're not convinced, here's the BBC reporting the same arrests:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47238545

This reminds me of the time when my friends ran a fake contest on Facebook in the early days. Someone won. Then they told their local newspaper. Other small papers picked it up. Then it got picked up by bigger publications. Everyone treated it like it was a legitimate contest.

Sometimes a story is so juicy that even the big fish can't ignore it.

I think 16 people being arrested for playing a banned video game is real news that deserves to be widely published.

Your friends' fake Facebook contest is not quite comparable.

I disagree. This story is far too insignificant for people who are nowhere near the incident to be alarmed about.

We have a lot to think and worry about all the time much closer to our homes. Stories like this being reported by an outlet so far removed from the situation on the ground don't serve the people receiving the news apart from triggering them.

HN is a global community and if something is insignificant for you because it's too far away or something, it's quicker to just ignore it than to go into the discussions and tell people that are actually engaging with the topic that it's not worth their time. A little disrespectful as well.

I can tell you why it's relevant to me: I live in India, so it's local, and it's related to the social effects of technology. Now the front page has news about California being drought-free. It's not of interest to me, so I will just ignore it.

We weren't talking about HN. How many Indian newspapers report on every little nonsensical arrest that happens in the US?

But these are not merely nonsensical arrests otherwise unconnected to everything.

Modi named PUBG as a problem in a recent public meeting. Then some local police officials decide to outlaw it, and start arresting people over it, while the courts and the government do nothing about it. The arrests are absolutely a part of the rise of fascism in the country under the current regime. Why should the world not be interested in the growing fundamentalist face of India?

Multiple people being arrested because of draconian laws enacted at whimsy, anywhere, is always newsworthy. I don't understand why you're trying to trivialise it.

> Modi named PUBG as a problem in a recent public meeting.

Any source to back this up? If you're referring to "Yeh PUBG wala hai kya", then it was a reply to a mother who was concerned about her son's addiction to online games. Any person who knows about online games would've pointed towards PUBG. This is also the reason why the locals petitioned the local police about rising PUBG addiction. Banning is not the solution but the concerns of parents about addiction(in exam season) are absolutely legit.

> The arrests are absolutely a part of the rise of fascism in the country under the current regime.

Either you don't know what fascism is or you're clearly making a joke out of it.

Did the locals also petition the police to arrest their own children?

I know what fascism is and in my opinion it is exactly what is happening in India in the current regime.

Today a BJP MP has openly declared that if the BJP wins the 2019 elections, there will not be a need for any more elections in 2024 or thereafter.

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