this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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No Stupid Questions

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49
Why is Minecraft able to be forced to put restrictions on online servers, but web browsers aren't held accountable for providing access to the web? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago by RedStrider@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
11 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

It seems like a kind of a paradox that online video games are held accountable for servers that they have nothing to do with, but meanwhile a browser can be truly open and doesn't have to employ any restrictions like age verification, or banning ips? Not even China goes after the browser level.

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[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

what restrictions are you talking about?

chances are, those are restrictions Microsoft is demanding. (for example, child safety. or "child safety", considering gates is a pedo.) It uses game files that are controled and licensed by Microsoft.

The browser on the other hand is an application that uses a standard, open, protocol to take information and turn it into a readable page with all the content you like to see.

It's not the browser's fault that pornhub uses the same protocol as, I dunno... whatever biblestory website evangelicals think is "safe". (do Song of Solomon next!)

Regardless, Microshit owns Minecraft, and they get to decide what restrictions it has on it.

[–] eatham@aussie.zone 2 points 1 week ago

They are removing chat for people in the UK. Not their fault this time, but they did add the code required years ago so it applys to older game versions which they don't have to do.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 week ago

There is also ability for external filtering.

It is easy to buy additional software to restrict websites. That equipment doesn't work for most video games.

[–] Pamasich@kbin.earth 23 points 1 week ago

They aren't. The restrictions are mandated by Microsoft, not governments.

They do have to take action in regards to their own Realms servers, but that's it. Restrictions on random unaffiliated Java servers are either for brand image or other selfish reasons. For example, someone here mentioned chat for UK teens, that one is almost certainly to force ID verification into the game, not to actually comply with anything. It's for data harvesting.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 week ago

In reality, it's likely that it's because Minecraft is largely targeted to kids. The primary presented idea of Minecraft is a game that is appropriate for kids. Web browsers don't make the same kind of presentation--their purpose is to render websites, but don't otherwise promise anything regarding the content viewed.

It would be a bit similar to a department store that stocked knives in the kids' toy section. Selling knives isn't really problematic, it's where they're located and the implied intent of that section.

[–] disregardable@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 week ago

I don't really know what a browser does, but that sounds analogous to punishing a tv manufacturer for someone playing a pirated film on their tv.

[–] rowinxavier@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you provide the server, the actual computer used to provide a service, you are responsible for that server. Minecraft Bedrock servers are operated directly by Microsoft and as such are something they are responsible for.

The browser accesses any and all servers for web pages. Regulating the browser would not work as they have no control over the content, nor do they have the ability to effectively filter.

The confusion comes from you running two similar programs on your computer and having one of those behave differently to the other. The key is that the game client is a client only for that game, but the browser is a client for any web server out there. The client is not regulated at all, the server is. Anyone can access any web server from a browser, but only one server from a game client.

Interestingly WoW has custom servers which are not operated by Blizzard and as such Blizzard is not responsible for what happens on them. The operator of the server is the responsible party here and has to control their platform.

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think the question is about Java servers

[–] rowinxavier@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Yeah, so for Bedrock it is hosted by Microsoft and they are responsible. For any hosting infrastructure they will need to manage things themselves, but Microsoft seems to be taking things a step further. They seem to have blocked chat for Java users who are not verified to be adults. This means you may have to use a third party provider to verify your account by providing them with various details and trust that they won't sell that information on.

Honestly, it is not something required by the law and it fits with a pattern I have noticed over the last few years. VPNs are being banned, age verification is being required on more and more sites starting with porn but now moving to things like video games, and the third party companies who can verify your age seem to be able to either sell that data on or sell things derived from that data. If I were planning to use authoritarian methods to control a population, similar to what ICE is doing in the USA, I would choose this strategy. Given the information in an age verification check I can train my AI systems to recognise specific faces and link them to the IMSI from a mobile phone present at a protest. This would identify the protestors and allow retribution at scale. Is that what is happening? I don't know. But does it look exactly how that would look? Yes.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago

You need to use minecrafts game files to access minecraft servers.

There are hundreds of browsers available, and since the standard is open it's easy to create a new one.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 5 points 1 week ago

I don't think Minecraft is accountable - they are just being controlling for no reason. Minecraft was fine for the past 15 years of it's existence and people kind of just accepted that 2b2t doesn't represent Minecraft or Microsoft as a whole