Cyka blyat! In light of the possibility of another Cold War, it seems as though Russia may have blocked access to streaming giant, Twitch. Russian internet users are currently unable to use Twitch; this comes as the Russian government carried out a ban on services hosted the tech giant Amazon. The Russian may be blocking Twitch as Amazon is their parent company.
The Russian government were initially targeting Amazon with IP bans. Almost 600,000 IP addresses linked to Amazon services were banned by the Russian government. It was around this time that Russian Twitch users start posting on the Twitch subreddit saying that Twitch is inaccessible. Despite that, some users are saying that they could steam and use Twitch. A little digging from the Redditors hinted that it could depend on what internet service provider (ISP) they are using; the ISP may not have gotten around to complying with Russian law enforcement just yet.
People all over the world use Twitch to stream video games. The rise of Fortnite and PUBG led a recent rise in Twitch users after years of steady growth. Indeed, Russia has the second-most number of Twitch users. On top of that, data company Newzoo had valued the Russian gaming scene at USD1.5 billion last year. If Twitch really does find itself a casualty of Russia’s banning of Amazon, this could seriously impact the gaming scene in Russia. As things stand, the ban could impact both video game players and companies.
The Russian IP bans are also affecting several popular video games such as Vainglory and Guild Wars 2. “We can confirm we are seeing a degradation in our service in Russia as a result of sudden, broad restrictions on network connectivity there,” says Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Vainglory developer Super Evil Megacorp. “Many players have found work-arounds by using VPN software and appear to be sharing successful solutions. Our engineers are working to identify further ways that we can help our players connect.”
The blanket ban on Amazon’s services comes after similar bans on Google’s services. An ongoing lawsuit between the Russian government and Telegram appears to be the basis for these bans. The Telegram messaging app uses encryption to keep messages safe, but the Russian government wants access to the encryption keys. Telegram has denied the Russian government’s request multiple times.
In any case, Russian Twitch users can still access the service using virtual private networks (VPN). VPNs hide their actual IP addresses and switch it to another one in another country. This makes it possible to still use blocked services such as Twitch.
(Source: Dot Esports)
