A viral tweet by a former Blizzard Entertainment developer that accused Sony of updating PlayStation‘s Terms of Service in response to new laws pertaining to Hong Kong has been debunked.
Niko Partners’ senior analyst Daniel Ahmad explained that the portion of the ToS that bars users from anti-CCP speech has been a part of Asia ToS for PlayStation devices for a number of years. The law that Sony has been complying with is 17 years old and all gaming companies are required to adhere to it should they wish to operate in the country.
Ahmad wrote:
Due to the complexities of covering the China games market and the history of Chinese government actions, it is easy for news stories to make the rounds using some incorrect information
The below being an example. I will explain why this viral tweet is completely incorrect-
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 23, 2020
– Sony updated its ToS for all users globally recently, including those in Asia / Hong Kong.
– The screenshot above is not related to new changes. This part of the ToS has been in the Asia ToS for PlayStation devices for years.
– It is also Mainland China specific.
2/
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 23, 2020
– Therefore it cannot be in response to the new Hong Kong National Security Law, nor does it apply to Hong Kong
– The ToS image is above is just the ‘Interim Administrative Provisions on Internet Culture’ law which was introduced in China during 2003 for all online products
3/
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 23, 2020
– In other words, this law is 17 years old and is the law that all gaming companies have to abide by when operating in Mainland China.
– Sony in particular has had this in their ToS for years. Here is the Asia ToS from wayback machine in 2018.https://t.co/LKAUMOf5Xe pic.twitter.com/ifi3jjceJc
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 23, 2020
To sum up.
PlayStation’s ToS update did not change or add the above.
The part already there has been there since 2003 in all gaming platforms and is just standard Chinese law.
It does not apply to Hong Kong or Global, nor is the National Security Law the reason for it.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 23, 2020
This 2003 law is very broad and open to interpretation, as with all Chinese laws. But this is nothing new for people in China, who already deal with these censorship laws.
Anyway. Here is PlayStation Asia ToS from October 2020 to support above. https://t.co/VyCzcJERn7 pic.twitter.com/oOjPiCcWqr
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 23, 2020
All cleared up.
