New laws in the communist country are being put in place to reduce contact with gamers from outside of China through online gaming
The Chinese Communist Party will be introducing new laws that ban aspects of online gaming in order to prevent contact with players that live outside of the communist regime, according to Taiwan News, further isolating their citizens from the rest of the world.
This news comes just days after the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons was removed from sale in the country. The super-popular Nintendo Switch hit, is a game where you simply create a home for yourself on an island and play with cute animals.
Joshua Wong, a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, has used the game to criticise the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping and to hold virtual protests and share screenshots stating “Free Hong Kong”.
Other players within China had created scenes in the social sim game that criticise the regime’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and as such, causing the country to ban the game for purchase in the country.
The Chinese government have described the dangers of online multiplayer games as an “authority vacuum”. The Chinese Communist Party is reportedly distressed that Chinese players are able to socialise virtually in unregulated spaces within these games.
As a result, these new laws are being created to “expand the scope of online censorship in video games,”.
In addition, any single-player games that require access to the internet will be under surveillance from the government, as well as multiplayer online games.
New laws that may soon be implemented may require players to use their legal name rather than an anonymous username in online games, these laws will also ban certain themes within video games including: “zombies and plagues, map editing, role playing, as well as organising a union”.
China also has other laws for video games, unrelated to censorship, such as an online gaming curfew for those under the age of 18, and a maximum amount of money people are permitted to spend on games to improve internet addiction.
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