🏠 » General » Riot Games under fire for helping China monitor players

Riot Games under fire for helping China monitor players

Riot Games is under fire from the Los Angeles Times for its participation in China’s increased surveillance of its citizenry.

The Chinese version of League of Legends tracks how long its players spend in-game in order to limit the time minors spend gaming. The so-called anti-addiction system includes warnings to players when they’ve reached their daily playtime limit, denial of time-based rewards, and kicking players out of the game. This is measured using their national ID.

A government monitoring and logging the entertainment habits of its citizens would be considered unethical by many. Regardless, companies like Riot are often faced with a choice of taking a moral stand in support of their customers or fully cashing in on the Chinese market. They routinely choose the latter.

China’s increasingly close watch on the lives of its citizens has been receiving attention around the globe with American and European tech companies often finding themselves caught in the middle.

In Riot’s case, the implementation of the anti-addiction system came at the behest of Chinese parent company Tencent Holdings, which achieved full ownership of Riot in 2015. Though Tencent typically takes a hands-off approach, the report from the LA Times discusses the conglomerate demanding action following increased scrutiny from the Chinese Government and outlining the needs of the system. Riot quickly followed through on Tencent’s requests, functionally developing software for the increasingly authoritative regime.

Some might dismiss this as an exclusively Chinese issue but there is no reason to think that this sort of surveillance technology can’t be implemented in the United States, especially when it is being developed by American companies. Critics of the move added that Riot’s willingness to normalize this invasion of privacy in China helps to make this the standard internationally.

As of 2018, Tencent is the largest game company in the world. It wholly owns Riot Games but also owns a 40% share of Fortnite publisher Epic Games while owning smaller slices of Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft.

Latest News
Trainwreckstv finds huge win in one of the strangest slots online
Top gambling and betting streamer Tyler “Trainwreckstv” Niknam ...
Aurora vs Parivision: Esports World Cup Dota 2 betting guide
Aurora Gaming is looking to finally win a ...
Gathering the best new slots released in July 2025
Online slots are getting crazy hot this summer, ...
Everonnn turns pocket change into big payout, here’s how
Kick streamer Everonnn began his betting session on ...
ParengCaspher hits huge 1,000x win during online slot run
Gladiator Legends is known for its high payout ...
Multistreaming boosts Asmongold as the most-watched streamer
Popular Twitch streamer Zack “Asmongold” Hoyt has recently ...
These are the biggest slots streamers to watch
Gambling streams, most especially slots streams, are becoming ...
Another big jackpot win for xQc highlights Kick stream
Félix "xQc" Lengyel is no stranger to massive ...
Trainwreckstv sets new personal best with massive jackpot payout
It's not just every day that you win ...
Asmongold shows Kick, Twitch revenue, which makes more money
Popular streamer Zack “Asmongold” Hoyt has started to ...
Editor's Picks
Who is Stevewilldoit? Net worth, girlfriend, and more
The news of Stephen "Stevewilldoit" Deleonardis, the master ...
All we know about Thea Booysen, MrBeast’s girlfriend
Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson is known purely for his ...
How to quickly make infinite water in Terraria
Whether you’re looking to spruce up your Hellevator ...
Best Pokemon Glazed cheat codes
Pokemon Glazed is one of the most popular ...
How to enable net graph in CS2 
Competitive players were disappointed when they discovered that ...

21+ and present in VA. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.

This site is using Cloudflare and adheres to the Google Safe Browsing Program. We adapted Google's Privacy Guidelines to keep your data safe at all times.
Virginia Town Hall
×
Your Promo Code:
The bonus offer of was already opened in an additional window. If not, you can open it also by clicking the following link:
Visit Site