Steam: Video Game Distribution Platform by Valve Including Community and Market Unavailable on Select ISPs Across India

Update 4:25 PM: Users of Alliance Broadband are reporting that Steam is now accessible to them again, indicating that the earlier ban was likely a mistaken action.

Original article follows.

A prominent ISP in India has reportedly banned access to the popular gaming platform Steam.

A user of the ISP, West Bengal’s Alliance Broadband, took to Twitter to express their discontent regarding the ban. When going to the Steam’s website, the ISP redirects them to a page which says, “As per government directive, the site has been blocked.” According to another user, the Steam program also fails to open the inventory section.

According to the user, the ISP informed that the ban on Steam is because of a government directive, and it is not the only website that will be banned.

ISP Alliance Broadband (Kolkata) is not allowing access to Steam profile, inventory and community.

When trying from browser, I am getting redirected to this ominous landing page.

Is Steam getting banned in India? What kind of stupidity is this? pic.twitter.com/VQa16BUSIz

— Indian Shrekt (@indianshrekt) June 16, 2023

Yup, can confirm. I’m on Alliance. The app also doesn’t open up the inventory.

Talked with Alliance through my local ISP provider since I’m on good terms with them, govt. directive apparently. pic.twitter.com/HYCZUPUEKC

— Sampad (@Only_Redacted) June 17, 2023

So far, reports of Steam’s ban have only come from Alliance Broadband. It is also possible that this action was taken in error, as Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar recently mentioned the ban on three categories of online games in India (which in reality are just gambling apps misleading everything under the disguise of online games). The three types of games that will be banned include those involving betting, games that can be harmful to the user, and games that involve a factor of addiction. It is likely that Steam was mistakenly categorised within one of these groups. However, the ISP informed AFKGaming that they “received a request to block multiple websites, and Steam was among them.”

IGN India has contacted the ISP, Steam, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for their responses. We will update the article accordingly once we hear back from them.