China Government Has Blocked Steam Community For Unknown Reason
Authorities in China have blocked some major part of steam according to report steam’s community section has been banned in China for unknown reasons.
The steam community page has the forum section for users to discuss and chat about the games. it also has other features like inventory, profile pages, and achievements. so with the block, it has banned all sort of social interaction on the game distribution site.
The GreatFire an organization in China which tracks the sites which have been either banned or censored by the Government. it also monitors how the authorities control the internet for the citizen. users from all over were alerted by Valve Time and Greatfire about the censorship.
The Steam Community has been blocked in China. Steam and the Steam Store are still accessible. https://t.co/pHJGFX2U4E #steam pic.twitter.com/oDl6FqOSzR
— ValveTime (@ValveTime) December 18, 2017
Chinese authorities have blocked access to @steam_games community website. Games can still be played. Likely somebody posted something the authorities found disagreeable. https://t.co/SP4BlVhChJ https://t.co/GBOxYA0Xm6
— GreatFire.org (@GreatFireChina) December 18, 2017
According to the report from the GreatFire, almost 95% of the site has been blocked and it has been in effect since 15 December 2017. it is being speculated that somebody posted some objectionable content on the forums.
Steam Users from China can still play the games they own and also purchase games which they want to buy. but nonetheless, the ban is still disrupting user experience and social interaction.
This is not the first time games’ service are facing problem in China previously PUBG was facing a ban as according to the authorities the game contains nonsocialist values. also to operate in China PUBG corp had to sign a deal with Chinese company Tencent.
Anyways the reason for the ban is still known and neither Chinese authorities nor Valve has issued any statement on the subject.