The U.S. Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) has asked gaming companies including Riot Games and Epic Games to provide information on security protocols, according to a Bloomberg report. The CFIUS sent letters to Epic, Riot, “and other game companies” asking them to provide data on security protocols related to user data to the government because of their deep ties with Tencent Holdings. 

Valorant and League of Legends developer Riot Games is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent Holdings, while the company holds a 40% stake in Fortnite maker Epic Games. Tencent has ownership stakes of varying sizes in video game developers and publishers around the world.

U.S. politicians have taken aim at Tencent’s WeChat and QQ apps, so this latest move is not surprising. The CFIUS investigates acquisitions of U.S. companies by foreign businesses for national security risks. 

The Esports Observer laid out how the Trump administration might use the CFIUS to take down TikTok in July, noting the following:

“What if the government began scrutinizing Tencent’s deep connections in the games industry? Tencent holds a fair percentage of Fortnite maker Epic Games; owns League of Legends and Valorant publisher Riot Games; and develops and/or publishes PUBG, PUBG MOBILE, Honor of Kings, and Call of Duty: Mobile. “

The focus of the CFIUS on Tencent-connected video game companies is the latest move against the Chinese conglomerate by U.S. politicians. On Aug. 7,  President Trump issued an executive order prohibiting transactions with the popular WeChat app, to take effect 45 days from the date of the order. On Monday, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FLA.) sent a letter to Trump urging him to add Tencent’s social media and messaging app QQ to the previous executive order aimed at WeChat. Rubio and other Republican senators are also asking the administration to scrutinize the ByteDance-Oracle deal for the U.S. operations of TikTok.

Source: https://esportsobserver.com/us-gov-riot-epic-tencent/