Steam Faces Temporary 'Ban' In Kolkata, Leaving Users Frustrated

On Saturday several users of Alliance Broadband reported that they were unable to use Steam. It was reported that a prominent ISP in India had banned access to the game distribution service, Steam. Steam was temporarily banned in WB for a few hours by the Alliance ISP but the ban only affected Steam Community and not the actual Steam website. Upon landing on Steam’s website, the ISP redirected users to a page which said, “As per government directive, the site has been blocked.”  

Interestingly, Steam was working fine with connections like Hathway, Vi, and Airtel. Users also pointed out that said Alliance has a track record of implementing government directives faster than usual. "About to sell an item and saw @Steam market is blocked by #AllianceBroadband and from their helpline I got to know @TRAI has blocked Steam. Is it real or this is just Alliance? would love to get some information!" wrote a user from the area. The problem got fixed a few hours later, between 3 to 4 pm IST and users were able to get back to using Steam. 

Temporary Steam 'Ban' Got Users In A Tizzy In Kolkata

But that did not stop users from commenting on how a gaming platform like Steam is more vulnerable to bans than most Indian gambling sites. “Funny how Steam can get wrecked but gambling apps exist,” wrote one user. 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. 

In related news, Steam just introduced several much-awaited updates; the new Steam framework lets developers access tools and libraries and also makes it easier for desktop clients, Big Picture mode, and Steam Deck. Among other things, this makes it possible to deliver many of the new features to the Steam Deck at the same time as the main client.