1 week Ago By Ishika Gupta
Explainer Briefly Slides Amid his call for a nationwide ban on online gaming, senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Vijay Goel’s official website has been hacked by the online betting brand Piraslot. Goel’s bid against online gaming Addressing the press on Wednesday, Goel launched a campaign against online gaming, joined by former Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi, former Rajya Sabha MP Sonal Mansigh, former High Court Judge S.N.
Dhingra and former Lok Sabha Secretary G.C. Malhotra.
Goel stated that the online gaming industry now worth Rs. 12 Lakh Crore has the potential of creating financial distress and “pushing families into crisis”, reported The Times of India. Additionally, he mentioned reports of suicides stemming from gaming addiction and subsequently criticised celebrities for endorsing such gaming applications.
Goel later called for a complete ban mirroring the restrictions on lotteries. Taking to X , the former Union Minister stated “Gambling is spreading rapidly in society today due to which millions of families are being ruined, children and youth are becoming its victims”. He also urged netizens to join a protest at Jantar Mantar on 16 November, seeking to address the issue.
Goel’s official page hacked After these developments, Goel’s official website was hacked by the online betting brand Piraslot. Consequently, the interface of his website has been changed with the display of a graphic and text in another language. Clicking on the website URL https://vijaygoel.
in/socialactivist/ leads to the following homepage: Similar cyber attacks in past years In 2022, former IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav disclosed that 5o websites belonging to the Union government had been hacked and eight data breaches were reported within governmental organisations. In the same year, All India Institute of Medical Sciences suffered a ransomware attack shutting down servers for nearly two weeks. Prior to this, in 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s X (formerly Twitter) handle was hacked , sending out false tweets declaring Bitcoin as the legal tender of the country.
In September 2020, PM Modi’s personal website was also briefly compromised, which hackers exploited by asking his followers to donate to India’s National Relief Fund through cryptocurrency in a series of tweets. Other initiatives against online gaming ban In addition to Goel’s campaign calling for a ban on online gaming, many other actions have also been taken by social organisations and individual entities in the matter. In October this year, Karnataka-based social activist organisation, Namma Karnataka Sena held multiple protests demanding a ban on online rummy games, alleging the adverse financial impacts of online gambling on marginalised youth.
The protest was initiated in response to the Karnataka High Court overturning the state law banning online games in 2022. The same year, MediaNama reported about the detrimental impacts of online gaming in Tamil Nadu resulting in the suicides of 17 individuals. Later in 2024, the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority recommended the implementation of KYC verification to deter minors from online gaming.
In August 2024, social worker Ganesh Ranu Nanaware from Maharashtra also filed a petition highlighting the drastic impact of Junglee Rummy and other online gambling platforms on the public. As for laws regulating the sphere of online gaming, in April 2023, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology notified new rules mandating self regulation of the industry through bodies approved by the ministry. Under this notification, gaming platforms were also required to set up grievance redressal bodies as well.
However, as of 2024, the government’s plans for the same seem to have been halted after dissatisfaction with an application that was submitted for a self-regulatory body by an online gaming authority, Mint reported . Also Read:.
