JAKARTA, Indonesia – Recent reports from actual users reported that Indonesia bans Steam. Steam is a video game digital distribution service and storefront by Valve. Two weeks ago, the Indonesian government urged big tech companies to register under the new licensing rules of the country. Otherwise, their platforms may face being blocked and inaccessible to all users within Indonesia. Among these were tech giants such as Google and Meta (previously known as Facebook).
On Friday, July 29, 2022, the Communication and Information Technology Ministry gave an ultimatum to all tech platforms or websites to register by midnight. Among these are the search engine Yahoo and the trading platform Amazon.
“If they fail to register until 11:59 p.m. today, I need to apologize to the communities because their services won’t be temporarily available nor accessible in Indonesia.”
Semuel Abrijanikata – Director General of Communication and Information Technology Ministry
What's In Here
Indonesia Bans Steam And Which Other Websites?
According to the report, big platforms such as Google and Alibaba have completed their registration in accordance with the new rule. However, since Friday, the ministry is still waiting for the following websites to complete their registration:
- Yahoo
- Amazon
- Bing
- Dota
- Steam
- CS Go
- Epic Games
- Battle.Net
- Origin
In the list above, most of them are online gaming websites or video game digital distribution services. And most Steam users already felt the effect yesterday, Saturday, 30 July 2022. One of the users posted his experience and dismay on Facebook/Meta.
Will VPN Work To Bypass the Restrictions?
Some players/users are suggesting their fellow players in Indonesia try using a VPN connection to get through. However, the Indonesian players were saying that although it may work on Steam, they might encounter an issue with payment later on. They say that Steam has a strict policy and system in place that detects the origin of the payment and compares it with the user account’s country setting.
Why Is There A Need For These Websites To Register?
According to the reports, this recent push to tech platforms and websites to register and comply with the rules was just a part of the bigger set of rules that was released in November 2020.
With this rule, the Indonesian authority can take down any websites running in Indonesia found to have unlawful contents (or deemed as) or that can “disturb public order“. The take-down can be processed within 4 hours for urgent cases. Whereas if the reported issue is deemed not urgent, then it can be taken down within 24 hours.
Is This The End?
There’s nothing to be worried about, really. The rule is not absolute. This means that if the website, for example, Indonesia bans Steam, the website will go back online once they register with the ministry.
We just need to wait until the mentioned companies complete their registration and everything will go back to normal.
Wait for the happy days!
