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From https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/a-good-tip-for-people-in-countries-that-wowhead-has-blocked/345146/3 https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/a-good

From https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/a-good-tip-for-people-in-countries-that-wowhead-has-blocked/345146/3 https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/a-good-tip-for-peopl... The following countries have been blocked from accessing any of the websites owned and operated by ZAM Network, LLC DBA Fanbyte (the owner of Wowhead. com): China Indonesia Philippines Thailand Turkey Serbia India This decision is ultimately due to legal compliance and liability issues with respect to these countries and their laws/regulations. This action was not based on any specific law or regulation in any one or more of the listed countries. Our decision was due to the legal costs involved with reviewing the laws and regulations of the listed countries, in contrast with the amount of visitors/revenue earned from them. As a result of this analysis, we decided not to pursue a legal review and to mitigate our liability in these countries, we opted to block access entirely. This is an indefinite decision. I and the rest of the Wowhead staff genuinely apologize for the inconvenience this will cause you. It was a tough decision but one that we ultimately had to accept.

weird-eye-issue 4y ago
I'm surprised to hear there's that much regulation in Thailand (if it's true). I do know a couple porn sites are blocked here though I own a site that's monetized primarily off display ads and I can tell you that advertising revenue in those countries is abysmally low so they probably just don't want to expend any effort to support those countries
- carbadtraingood 4y ago
  Thailand has laws about how one can talk about the king, right? Maybe there's no safe harbor provisions for websites, and a site this size is too small to fight, but big enough to attract attention?
  - weird-eye-issue 4y ago
    Yeah actually I completely forgot about that too somehow. And there are strict libel laws as well
  - drdec 4y ago
    It sounds like they aren't basing it on how much regulation the jurisdiction has, but whether the jurisdiction brings in enough revenue to justify reviewing the regulation in the first place. Even if there is no regulation, you need a lawyer to tell you that.
    - ajmurmann 4y ago
      What's the threat of not loving up to their regulation when not being located there? Isn't the worst scenario that they just block your website on their end?
  - fellellor 4y ago
    This is a blanket ban of multiple countries. It's most likely something very unspecific and probably unrelated to local regulation situation. Also fanbyte seems to be an influencer marketing platform. If they wont serve influencers in these countries anyway, it makes sense for them to block all users from there to stop messing up their metrics or targeting or whatever. This isn't really much value to most people. If you ask me the less influencer crap that exists in this world, the better.
satyrnein 4y ago
I wonder if some of those countries could come up with a unified regulatory framework so companies have a way of bringing down the compliance costs of serving those countries, rather than freeze them out entirely.

weird-eye-issue 4y ago

I'm surprised to hear there's that much regulation in Thailand (if it's true). I do know a couple porn sites are blocked here though I own a site that's monetized primarily off display ads and I can tell you that advertising revenue in those countries is abysmally low so they probably just don't want to expend any effort to support those countries

carbadtraingood 4y ago
Thailand has laws about how one can talk about the king, right? Maybe there's no safe harbor provisions for websites, and a site this size is too small to fight, but big enough to attract attention?
- weird-eye-issue 4y ago
  Yeah actually I completely forgot about that too somehow. And there are strict libel laws as well
- drdec 4y ago
  It sounds like they aren't basing it on how much regulation the jurisdiction has, but whether the jurisdiction brings in enough revenue to justify reviewing the regulation in the first place. Even if there is no regulation, you need a lawyer to tell you that.
  - ajmurmann 4y ago
    What's the threat of not loving up to their regulation when not being located there? Isn't the worst scenario that they just block your website on their end?
- fellellor 4y ago
  This is a blanket ban of multiple countries. It's most likely something very unspecific and probably unrelated to local regulation situation. Also fanbyte seems to be an influencer marketing platform. If they wont serve influencers in these countries anyway, it makes sense for them to block all users from there to stop messing up their metrics or targeting or whatever. This isn't really much value to most people. If you ask me the less influencer crap that exists in this world, the better.

satyrnein 4y ago

I wonder if some of those countries could come up with a unified regulatory framework so companies have a way of bringing down the compliance costs of serving those countries, rather than freeze them out entirely.