The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) may have taken its political censorship to a whole new level. According to reports, China is now banning online gaming with foreigners. As a result, Chinese gamers will no longer be able to play online multiplayer games with their friends in foreign countries.
China bans online gaming with foreigners
Previously, China banned a popular Nintendo game “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” because a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, Joshua Wong, made fun of Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, in the game.
Now, it looks like the ban is no longer limited to one game or the two but online gaming as a whole, preventing Chinese gamers from chatting with foreigners outside the Great Firewall.
Several other players were also found mocking China’s political leadership over the CCP’s failure to deal with the coronavirus situation.
With this ban, the communist regime may be looking to address the lack of authority when it comes to online games, especially the ones that encourage gamers to freely and openly socialize on the Internet without being monitored, something the CCP is trying to fix.
China may be on the move to draft laws that prohibit Chinese gamers from socializing with foreign gamers on the other side of the Great Firewall. But it doesn’t seem to exempt single-player online games, which will also be subject to surveillance.
It comes in the wake of a new real-name mechanism that is going to be implemented in China. What’s more, zombies, plagues, map editing, roleplaying, organizing a union in games is no longer allowed.
Other rules in this law appear to be less political such as online gaming curfew between 10-o-clock at night and 8-o-clock in the morning. This curfew applies to gamers aged under 18.
The law also puts a limit on the maximum amount of money they are allowed to spend on games to crack down on Internet addiction.
