Last month, Indonesia's Steam ban (alongside a ban of other websites and gaming services) sent shockwaves throughout the world. But after the widespread reaction, the country's government has relented - at least for now.
steam logo
As reported on The Verge, the Steam ban in Indonesia has been temporarily lifted. But despite this, other gaming services like Epic Games and EA's Origin are still blocked in the country. Aside from that, the Kominfo (Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information) has also announced that CS:GO and DOTA 2 are unblocked, too, so players of those games don't have to worry about it now.
It is not known what made the Indonesian government go back on its initial decision. But maybe the initial ban on online services could give a few hints.
The first instance of Indonesia's Steam ban doesn't just affect Valve's digital game storefront, as previously mentioned. It affects others such as Epic Games, Origin, Nintendo Online, Ubisoft Connect, and even online payment services like PayPal, among others. The reason for the ban, as per the Indonesian government, is that these online platforms don't comply with the country's internet licensing laws.
In other words, all of these platforms will have to secure permits before they can operate on Indonesian soil. Anybody who doesn't comply will get the platforms and their services blocked in the country. Aside from that penalty, all online services wishing to do business in Indonesia will also have to share communications and their users' personal data whenever the government asks for it.
As per a report by IGN, a total of 8,680 domestic and 282 foreign online permit applications have been submitted to Kominfo as of July 29th.
Indonesia's Steam ban is also part of the country's crackdown on anything "deemed unlawful" appearing online, writes Kotaku. They didn't clarify their criteria for classifying content as "unlawful," though. Nevertheless, people basically still found a workaround to access their games by either using a VPN or changing their DNS, although the government will probably crack down on these VPNs next if the practice takes off.
Read also: Assassin's Creed Valhalla Update 1.6.0 Is Now Live For All Platforms
The Potential Implications Of Indonesia's Steam Ban
The Steam ban in Indonesia will have implications other than millions of people losing access to their game libraries. It will also look bad for the country's budding ESports scene, to name a few.
Participants sit at a computer monitor to play a video game at the 2019 DreamHack video gaming festival on February 15, 2019 in Leipzig, Germany. The three-day event brings together gaming enthusiasts, mainly from German-speaking countries, for events including eSports tournaments, cosplay contests and a LAN party with 1,500 participants.
According to ESports Flag, DOTA 2 is the most popular ESports title in the country. As of this writing, a total of 11 professional DOTA 2 teams operate out of Indonesia, winning $463,471 in accumulated prize money across multiple tournaments. But aside from that, other games such as Counter-Strike, League Of Legends, and long-time pro gaming icon StarCraft 2 are among the favorites of Indonesian gamers.
A handful of these ESports teams have already featured in international competitions. But if online gaming services are banned in their home country, they will have to resort to workarounds just to train and could perhaps even lose vital funding. That will spell the end of Indonesia's budding ESports scene before it even blooms.
This is a developing story.
Related: Steam Is Banning Award Logos, Review Scores On Key Game Art
