Steam was banned in Vietnam last weekend as a measure to protect the local video game industry. In Vietnam, every video game developed by a local developer has to go through a review process before it can be published.
Steam is bypassing this process and local developers say this will have an impact on the industry as any game can be launched without permission and be seen as discriminatory.
At the time of writing some ISPs have blocked Steam from being accessed through apps and websites. Consumers in Vietnam complained but had no way to resolve it since it was a government directive.
Vietnam became the second country in the Southeast Asian region to ban Steam. A few years ago the Indonesian Ministry of Information (Kominfo) blocked Steam for a while because the platform did not have a license to operate. What makes this incident interesting is that the minister of Kominfo Indonesia personally apologized to gamers because Steam should be banned according to the law. country.