Gaming platform Steam blocked in Vietnam for refusal to cooperate with authorities

All games distributed in Vietnam need to have licenses, Le Quang Tu Do, director of the authority of broadcasting, television and electronic information under the Ministry of Information and Communications, said.

"Most platforms cooperate with authorities and comply with local laws. However, our agency has contacted Steam many times but the platform never responded, and therefore it was blocked."

Vietnamese users have had trouble accessing Steam store since early May. An error message is displayed when users try to browse its store and to pay for its services.

Users can still play the games that they have downloaded. Steam is operated by game developer Valve Corporation and was launched in 2003. It now offers over 100,000 games.

GameLoop, which provides an emulator for smartphone games on the computer, have also been blocked in Vietnam.

The game Roblox, which is popular among teenagers, is also required to have permits and, its developer has partnered with a local company to distribute it in Vietnam.

Netflix has removed most of its games in Vietnam.