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Fallout from Blizzard Hong Kong Incident

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Re: Fallout from Blizzard Hong Kong Incident

#51

Post by BrandonMarc »

MBCook wrote: post #20
macspoofing wrote: post #10

I don't think it should be an international incident. The reality is that corporations shouldn't be espousing political viewpoints, and nobody should care what their opinion is on controversial policies. They make and sell products and that's all they should stick too. Why should Blizzard get in the middle of what's happening between China and Hong Kong? And to be clear, it isn't just Chinese government versus Hong K…

> The reality is that corporations shouldn't be espousing political viewpoints But they MUST. That’s the issue. There is no such thing as remaining neutral. What could they do? Ban the player to make China happy? Now the west is mad and boycotting. NOT ban the player? Now China is pissed and kicking you out of the country. They were damned by someone either way. There was no neutral political stance they could take.…

Precisely. Don't want to be involved in international politics? Fine - don't involve yourself in international commerce, either.

Re: Fallout from Blizzard Hong Kong Incident

#52

Post by coralreef »

dragontamer wrote: post #14
coralreef wrote: post #6

Propose that a suspended player is a US citizen. This feels unconstitutional / illegal, as Blizzard has taken away the player's ability to earn a living based in their political views. The guise of suspension under the violation of "disparagement" feels weak. I'd be interested in seeing how a lawsuit plays out.

> Propose that a suspended player is a US citizen. Like Colin Kaepernick? That just happened like 3 years ago, has everyone already forgotten?

If I recall correctly, Colin was never suspended or prevented from playing.

He suspects he was blacklisted by owners/NFL by not being signed in free agency, but that may be difficult to prove.

Re: Fallout from Blizzard Hong Kong Incident

#53

Post by fullshark »

netsharc wrote: post #26

Great Streisand moves by China though, previously gamers or basketball fans might not really care about what's happening in Hong Kong/China in general, but within 2 days they (China) have raised awareness of what a shitty overlord they are.

Streisand effect imo is overrated. We want it to be true that censorship / silencing information doesn't work but it's shown time and time again that it does work by and large and that information is silenced for the vast majority of the population.

Re: Fallout from Blizzard Hong Kong Incident

#54

Post by langseth »

coralreef wrote: post #6

Propose that a suspended player is a US citizen. This feels unconstitutional / illegal, as Blizzard has taken away the player's ability to earn a living based in their political views. The guise of suspension under the violation of "disparagement" feels weak. I'd be interested in seeing how a lawsuit plays out.

A quick google search suggests that in the US only California, New York, and D.C. protect against discrimination based on political views[1]. But can act if that view affects performance (at least in California)[2].

1: https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/political-aff... 2: https://californiaemploymentlaw.foxrothschild.com/2018/10/ar...

Re: Fallout from Blizzard Hong Kong Incident

#56

Post by michannne »

intopieces wrote: post #38
falcolas wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China is targeting individual speech, sanctions and embargos target governments and governmental policy. There's a bit of a difference there. That said, I think that China's efforts - by using companies as their proxies - are being much more effective.

>are being much more effective Absolutely. They’re beating us at our own game and revealing that American values were never freedom and democracy - those are just ways we think are good to make money. If a better system comes along we’re the first to jump on it.

How does censorship reveal that our values were never freedom and democracy?

If anything, it shows just how well freedom and democracy works in America despite how many conflicting ideologies exist in our nation, compared to any other country.

Re: Fallout from Blizzard Hong Kong Incident

#58

Post by legohead »

heyyyouu wrote: post #35

What is really interesting about this is how completely and utterly horrible a job Blizzard did in anticipating and preparing this very obvious possibility, and thus is so poorly handling every single aspect of this.This so obviously was likely to happen that it easily could have been anticipated and planned for to be dealt with in a much, much more professional way, and yet clearly they didn't, and it's beyond inexc…

They could have gotten away with it had they not been so severe. They: Banned the player, fired the casters, and took back the player's winnings. They should have just banned the player for a year and left it at that.

(not agreeing with anything that they did, just looking at it from a PR perspective)

Re: Fallout from Blizzard Hong Kong Incident

#59

Post by LocalH »

dak1 wrote: post #50

The CCP can move quickly and decisively to ban access to the world's 2nd largest market, and it uses that power to chill speech and force governments and companies to take actions it wants that are antithetical to a free society. Small nations and individual companies cannot stand up to this coercion individually, and free, market economies lack the organization to respond in a cohesive way. The optimistic belief tha…

It'd be really nice if the world pulled out of that market, which would decimate it and teach China that they don't own the world.

That would never happen, anyway. That's the real power of money.

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