United States Government Questioning Developers Under Tencent For Security
Recently, Indian government had a high-tension conflict with Chinese apps and their developers due to national security matters. This conflict resulted in over a hundred apps being banned, including PUBG MOBILE. The reason for the bans was data transmission via unknown means to unknown locations. After this ban, Korean company PUBG Corp. announced they will take the authorization of Tencent Games over PUBG MOBILE in an attempt to relieve Indian government’s concerns and unban the game.
While the smoke from that wildfire still lingers around, we are receiving the news of U.S. Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) asking a list of gaming companies that have bonds with Tencent Holdings to provide information on their security protocols regarding user data.
Riot Games, developer of VALORANT and League of Legends, is entirely owned by Tencent Holdings. Epic Games’ 40% share is also owned by Tencent Holdings. There are many more developers around the world owned by Tencent with varying stake sizes.
Games are not the only item in CFIUS’ list of inquiry, as some politicians have been also aiming at Tencent’s WeChat and QQ apps lately. It seems like China is coming under a serious pressure regarding the data processing matters over a large number of cases.
