Chinese internet company Tencent’s video game investments are coming under scrutiny from the US government. According to Bloomberg, the Trump administration is reaching out to Tencent’s US companies to ask them to send over details on their data-security systems pertaining to Tencent.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US has sent letters to Epic Games and Riot Games, among others, asking them to share details and information about how they handle the personal data of their American users, according to Bloomberg’s sources.
Tencent owns League of Legend studio Riot Games completely, while it has a 40 percent ownership stake in Epic Games. Tencent also owns a minority stake in the American games publisher Activision Blizzard. Looking abroad, Tencent owns Path of Exile studio Grinding Gear, while it also has smaller investments in Ubisoft, Bluehole, Yager, and PlatinumGames.
Aimen Mir, who formerly worked for the US Treasury Department, told Bloomberg, “When you’re talking about massive amounts of data, there’s probably something for the committee to look at.”
This move from the US government comes amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on the viral app TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Just recently, ByteDance announced that Oracle and Walmart would acquire a 20% stake in the company, preventing TikTok from getting banned in the US.
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