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Comment by dj_gitmo | Hacker News Reader

I think protectionism is probably the reason.

According to this article, on of the proponents is SK Telecom, of “SK Terran” fame. https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-netflix-under-scru...

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When I think of protectionism, I think of things like the agriculture and aerospace industries for the sake of food and national security. What is the strategic benefit of game streaming? Does loss of that industry represent an existential national threat??

Both India and China have protectionism. China is the most obvious case where most typical US tech companies are banned

Entertainment and the infrastructure that delivers it is an important pillar of soft power.

>Entertainment and the infrastructure that delivers it is an important pillar of soft power.

Might be a miscalculation if the goal is soft power as in cultural export (the so called Korean Wave). At least in the gaming/streaming space where Korea has been punching above it's weight in cultural impact since the StarCraft 2 days.

My guess is this policy results in Korean streamers on Korean sites streaming to Korean-only audiences. Reduces the worldwide crossover reach of Korean cultural export at least near and medium term.

Though YouTube is probably adequate for this if it can stick around...

It won't, see Japanese manga/anime. There's close to zero global reach, zero exchange of capitals and influences are completely one-way. Cultural development in isolation creates invasive species of cultures, the only caveat is it must be paired with alternate means of acquiring foreign currency(car export) to work.

Korean entertainment does get exported a bit primarily in Asia, but it's valuable domestically that you or your people have access or control over their entertainment.

Protectionism doesn't have to be a matter of national security. Korean ISPs love money and they have friends in the government, that's basically it, as far as I know.

It’s the same with Canada and our Telecom+Media Oligopoly. Three companies basically control internet/phone/tv/radio, and exert incredible influence over politicians to implement laws and regulations that benefit them to the detriment of the general public.

Yes??

The strategic benefit of game streaming is cultural imperialism. Every sovereign country wants a Hollywood.

To be clear, a "Hollywood" is any local industry that simultaneously:

1. Monopolizes or oligopolizes the internal market to the point where cultural importation is forbidden, and,

2. Exports a large amount of its own work to other countries, displacing the foreign country's culture

Out of these two concerns, #1 is key; #2 is more icing on the cake. Censorship of other countries' speech allows imposing whatever values you want in the resulting silence. If Twitch is operating in Korea, then they control (through algorithmic editorialization) what a large chunk of Koreans are watching; Korea's government loses that control.

How this manifests in other countries differs. America has an oligopoly that used to marginalize anything it didn't make, but Big Tech needs Hollywood to be subservient to them for various copyright-related reasons, so they're willing to circumvent that control with social media. Going further, you can self-privilege in the law: France and Canada have explicit requirements to show a certain percentage of French or Canadian content in broadcast and streaming media.

https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/SK_Terran

>Mentality: SK Terran is a highly aggressive style that is intended to pressure the Zerg with a large number of MnM and Science Vessels. The ideal scenario is to split apart a big MnM ball and engage in guerrilla tactics around the map while irradiating key Zerg units such as Defilers, Ultras, and Lurkers.

I assumed this was a humorous analogy for this Korean policy but and it's going over my head (though I only know SC2) or maybe you meant to link SK Telecom https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/SK_Telecom_T1

>SK Telecom is a mobile telecommunications operator in South Korea that is a part of the SK Group, one of South Korea's largest conglomerates.

Insight from a Z player in BW: the idea behind the whole strategy is to shut down all Zerg units while pushing them to their bases. Imagine a flying detector unit which has a decent speed and Viper's Parasitic Bomb which works twice as long, could be cast on any unit and deals damage only to bio ones... Basically it could kill any Zerg unit except the big ones in one cast (because Queens are flying and can't heal in BW) or shut down Muta stacks, ceasing any map control attempts until the counter measures will grow.

edit: wording.

Actually, I meant to share this link containing info that the strategy is named after a player with the name of SoulKey and not for SK Telecom.

Ironically, I only know of SK Telecom because I watched League of Legends tournaments on Twitch...

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