Indian Users Fear A Ban On Steam And Other Gaming Platforms

Steam users in India have been left anxious after access to the platform was blocked by several ISPs across the country. Last week, users of Alliance Broadband in Kolkata raised alarm when the ISP temporarily blocked access to Steam websites. A few days later, a similar situation arose with GTPL, an ISP based in Gujarat. Punjab’s Connect Broadband and Maharashtra’s Channel 3 apparently also suffered from this access issue. 

In all the cases, users reported that the Steam Community and Steam Community Market were made inaccessible during the disruption as they were directed to a dead link, which in turn displays a message indicating that the government has blocked it. Alliance reportedly shared with one of their users that the ISP has ‘removed the block’ but is still verifying the directive details issued by the government. 

Also Read: Steam Faces Temporary 'Ban' In Kolkata, Leaving Users Frustrated

Can Steam Be Banned In India? Gamers Left In Limbo

Through the temporary ‘ban’ quickly lifted in West Bengal, several smaller ISPs have reportedly started blocking Steam Community pages as per directives from the Government of India. Valve has not issued any statements regarding the ban on Steam webpages by specific Indian ISPs. But the impending ban could shake things up for several gaming powerhouses considering India has the 2nd largest gamer base in the world, as per a 2022 report. 

Earlier this week, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar commented on the online gaming industry and shared that the government has prepared a blueprint of rules that will target games that involve betting, games that can be harmful to users and games that have an addiction factor. Last year the government issued a statement that confirmed the appointment of multiple self-regulatory organisations (SROs) comprising industry representatives, educationists, child experts and psychology experts who will weigh in on the new policies.

Steam has in the past been banned in Indonesia last year. The Indonesian government had blocked access to several online services, including Steam, Epic Games, PayPal, and Yahoo after the companies failed to abide by a directive related to the country’s restrictive content moderation laws.