The axe of Chinese censorship falls on one of the most popular games of the moment. Let's find out why Pokémon Go is so dangerous?
No Pokemon GO for Chinese citizens. The Asian authorities have in fact decided to prohibit the release of the game on the entire country. The Japanese monsters of Nintendo, however, are in good company because the ban also extends to many other video games for smartphones and tablets based on augmented reality.
It is, in fact, a preventive block - reports the Reuters news agency - until a special Chinese commission - the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association - will not have evaluated all the risks and dangers of these video games. Pokémon GO, and its "siblings," are considered dangerous to both national security and the safety of users. There are those who speak of old rust between China and Japan, of the fact that the Chinese still do not see eye to eye with the products of the Rising Sun sold in their country. No, here the reasons are essentially political, or it would be better to say geo-political.
Why has Pokémon GO been banned in China?
The real reasons behind the blocking of the release of Pokémon GO & co. may make us Westerners smile, but if we analyze them carefully from the point of view of China they have their own logic. Pokémon GO are, in their own words, "a danger to national geographic security" because they are apps that use geo-location in order to function. They are, to put it simply, tools that can always know where the player is. The fact, then, that Pokémon GO is based on Google maps, which are currently blocked throughout China, is another matter.
Pokemon Go causes accidents
The second reason, namely, that Pokémon GO - and all applications that exploit augmented reality - represent a risk to the safety of users. It is true that, precisely because they excite so much, they can distract: you pay less attention to what surrounds you and, if this happens on the street, there is a real danger of accidents - more or less serious - for the person.