Epic Games, Steam, and PayPal's ban in Indonesia leaves players fuming

The decision to ban Epic Games, Steam, and PayPal in Indonesia has left countless players disappointed. Social media is replete with complaints and frustrations regarding the government's decision based on an official ruling regarding companies providing tech services and doing business within the country.

The new IT rule in question asks such companies to register themselves in government data with Kominfo, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology of the Republic of Indonesia. According to a Niko report, some of the Private Electronic System Providers (PSE) registered are Google, YouTube, Valorant, PUBG Mobile, and Mobile Legends.

The report mentioned that Epic Games, Steam, Battle.net, Origin, DOTA 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, PayPal, Yahoo, Bing, and many more popular companies and games were not registered as of July 27. Niko's article states that failure to comply would result in a formal warning, a monetary fine, and access termination. It appears that the government has now gone ahead and banned these companies.

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Players are frustrated with the Indonesian government's decision to ban Epic Games, Steam, PayPal, Battle.net, and more

The move to ban Epic Games, Steam, and other such companies and games severely impacts players' ability to engage with their already downloaded games or the marketplace. People have been sharing screenshots of error screens showing a failure to connect to the game servers.

Players have expressed their frustration with Kominfo over their decision. Many have been sharing ways to bypass the ban, including using VPNs. Others have pointed out that the regulation, in this case, is merely a move by the government to further control the space and garner money.

The blocking of PayPal has also affected plenty of people who accept commissions for their work. There are plenty of tweets explaining their anguish with the move and the problems they are facing because of it. One Twitter user, @DamarJuniarto, pointed out that PayPal was already registered but was still inaccessible.

The Indonesian Game Association has put out a response regarding PSE on their Twitter channel. It states that although a number of popular SEs in Indonesia have registered, some are yet to comply.

"Unfortunately, 6 of the 10 most popular SE's who haven't registered are from the video game field. These SE-SE include Steam, Dota 2, CS:GO (Valve Corporation), Epic Games (Epic Games, Inc), and Origin (Electronic Arts). Therefore, KOMINFO has cut off access to these SE by KOMINFO since July 29, 2022 at 23.59."

It continues:

"The termination of access is not permanent, and will be able to be reused by the Indonesian people as before after the affected SE has been registered. Currently, KOMINFO is actively communicating with the affected PSEs and will be followed up after the PSE registers."

Despite the statement's clarification that the regulation is intended for accountability and to counter risks in the digital world to the people of Indonesia, not everyone seems to agree with it. Irrespective of such modalities, players will be hoping for a quick resolution to the issue so that they can use the services once again.