Internet users in Russia are apparently unable to access Twitch after the country issued a blanket ban on any services hosted by its parent company, U.S. tech giant Amazon.
Internet users in Russia are apparently unable to access Twitch after the country issued a blanket ban on any services hosted by its parent company, U.S. tech giant Amazon.
After the country banned more than 600,000 IP addresses linked to Amazon services, Russian Twitch users began posting on the site’s official subreddit claiming they were not able to access it. Several users in the same thread said they were still able to stream and use the site, but other users reported that, depending on which internet service provider (ISP) those users had, the ISP may simply not have gotten around to complying with Russian law enforcement yet.
If Twitch is a casualty of Russia’s sweeping action against Amazon, the decision could have massive implications for both casual gaming and esports in the country. Russia’s gaming market was valued at roughly $1.5 billion in 2017 by data research company Newzoo, and also has the second-largest userbase on Twitch, according to market intelligence tool SimilarWeb.
The Russian government has also blocked access to millions of IP addresses linked to Google. The government’s actions are predicated on an ongoing lawsuit between the government and Telegram Messenger LLP—the developers of the encrypted chat app Telegram. Essentially, the Russian government wants access to Telegram’s encryption keys, in order to allow it access to the communication between users. Telegram has denied the request multiple times.
Popular games such as Vainglory and Guild Wars 2 have also been affected by the bans.
“We can confirm we are seeing a degradation in our service in Russia as a result of sudden, broad restrictions on network connectivity there,” Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Vainglory developer Super Evil Megacorp, told Dot Esports in an email. “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.”
For the time being, Twitch is still accessible to Russian users that use a virtual private network (VPN), which masks their location by replacing their IP address to one in another country.
Dot Esports reached out to Twitch for comment, but the company did not respond by publication time.
