Chinese Tech giant Tencent was recently faced with a Chinese public interest group lawsuit, claiming that Tencent’s mobile game titled Honor of Kings contained inappropriate content for children. Reuters had reported Tencent sued over Honor of Kings and this case faced against the technology giant by domestic authorities. Reuters also reported that the group had filed the lawsuit in a Beijing court, accusing Tencent of not taking the recently updated child protection laws in bright light.
Claims made against Tencent for Honor of Kings
According to Beijing Teenagers Law Aid and Research Center, the lawsuit claims regarding “Honor of Kings” that the game characters’ clothing is too revealing, while there is a lot of low-taste content that is inappropriate for teenagers on its website and forums”. The group also posted on social media platforms addressing complaints that the flagship game contained low-cut and inappropriate clothing as well as a disrespect to traditional culture as it “tampered with historical figures”.
Another concern addressed by the group was the fact that Tencent gradually lowered the age limit of the game from 18 to 12, which is the current age limit, just over a span of four years. On top of that, the group also expressed concerns about the in-game mechanics, such as the “in-game raffle” which prolonged the screentime of younger players.
Reuters stated that this lawsuit tails a series of antitrust crackdowns by Beijing upon several of the largest Chinese tech companies. The publication also mentions China’s plan to fine Tencent, “for anticompetitive practices in some businesses and for not properly reporting past acquisitions for antitrust reviews.”
Tencent faced similar accusations previously
“Honor of Kings” had around 100 million daily active players worldwide as of November, said Tencent. But Tencent getting sued over Honor of Kings is not the first time they experienced something similar. The company faced other lawsuits, including one from ByteDance, owner of TikTok, which accused Tencent of violating antitrust laws by preventing users from accessing Douyin content on the WeChat and QQ messaging apps.
This has been a letdown for the Chinese Giant, as the growth of the company might be hindered due to such accusations. However, as for this case, we will have to see what is going to be the response and the talks for the future.
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