When conservatives were banned en masse the liberals cheered. Their argument was that censoring by private companies was totally acceptable. Now that their preferred positions are being censored they've suddenly rediscovered the value of free speech. I hope they learn the lesson from this - free speech is too precious a right to be given up just to shut down your opponent. If your opponents are censored today, you'll surely be tomorrow.
Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event
151–160 of 460 posts
Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is that a country which is committing human rights abuses is pressuring said private company (among _many_ others) to abridge free speech. The other case is a private company not wanting to host right-wing neo-nazi content of which the general public isn’t really accepting. I don’t see the hypocrisy here at all.. tbh I don’t even quite understand how you can conflate the two situations other than the f…
FWIW, there is no visible pressure that has been exhibited from China against Blizzard. There have been no statements from China either in support or condemnation of any of the involved actors. The situation is entirely driven by Blizzard, for fear of their potential revenue stream out of China. This is in contrast to the NBA scenario, where China did speak out against the NBA, and later began to cancel contracts.
You have literally no idea what might be being communicated in private between China and Blizzard. How can you make such a claim in good faith?
Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event
#153The huge question here is what's going to happen at BlizzCon in two weeks. There'll be 40,000+ attendees, cameras everywhere, there are usually Q&A panels, homemade signs for player support, cosplay, everything. How can you host BlizzCon when you're terrified of political speech?
I, and several friends, all have tickets. We're still deciding what form of protest will be most effective (too overt and the message gets quickly lost when security kicks you out).
Leverage the Q&A section(s)! Be sure to have a good, legitimate question about the game (in case they're screening them), but follow it up by asking, for example, "what is your opinion of Chairman Xi Jinping?"
Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
They banned a player and stripped their prize-money for speaking out in favor of HK. They did this in order to try and maintain access to Chinese markets, probably assuming that the US market wouldn't care.
And everyone else in the room at the time was terminated. Which was the amazing part that totally destroyed any attempt at high ground.
Wrong, the casters were fired because they knew what was going to transpire and actively let it happen.
Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with you completely, but this whole debacle has highlighted what seems to be hypocrisy in the general public's reaction to this. Remember when The Daily Stormer got kicked off CloudFlare and a whole host of other platforms, to the point that no one would take their business and they were effectively censored? The average take on that seemed to be a mix of "Free speech doesn't apply to private companies" and "…
edit: I'm being downvote bombed for this, which is strange. Anyone care to articulate reasons for disagreeing? Would it be correct to boycott CloudFlare for deplatforming the Daily Stormer? No, because there's nothing wrong with deplatforming Nazis, there was nothing morally reprehensible in Cloudflare's actions. Would it be correct to boycott Blizzard for severely over-reacting to a pro Hong Kong political act on on…
I downvoted, since the two incidents are fundamentally about free speech (I have a post attached to a sibling that explains why I think this applies to private companies too). That one form of speech is detested while the other is supported doesn't change that it's fundamentally about free speech.
To be slightly hyperbolic, it's impossible to say something of substance that doesn't offend someone. If all we're allowed to say is that which doesn't offend anyone, then nothing of substance can be said.
Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
They banned a player and stripped their prize-money for speaking out in favor of HK. They did this in order to try and maintain access to Chinese markets, probably assuming that the US market wouldn't care.
They banned him because he spoken about politics which have nothing with video games. I don't think that they tried to censor exactly HK speech. I guess they would have banned him if he would talk about Putin as well.
One one hand, sure he broke the rules. If they had said "don't do that any more", or given him a slap on the wrist it would be understandable. But they banned him for a year and revoked the winnings he had already received in tournament play—
Blitzchung got a worse punishment than people who got caught cheating at Blizzard games. I think that says a lot about where their priorities are.
Based on past events (even Blizzard's own presentations at Blizzcon) it's already clear that the rule against offending people is being selectively enforced.
Edit: And I'm presuming it's being selectively enforced based on who is offended by a statement.
Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
They banned him because he spoken about politics which have nothing with video games. I don't think that they tried to censor exactly HK speech. I guess they would have banned him if he would talk about Putin as well.
The Chinese version of the Blizzard statement was different: https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/10/verified-chinese-bli... It included we will defend the honor of the nation, making it clear exactly what he did wrong.
Posted not by Blizzard but by Net-Ease, a Chinese company that isn't owned by Blizzard.
Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event
#158When conservatives were banned en masse the liberals cheered. Their argument was that censoring by private companies was totally acceptable. Now that their preferred positions are being censored they've suddenly rediscovered the value of free speech. I hope they learn the lesson from this - free speech is too precious a right to be given up just to shut down your opponent. If your opponents are censored today, you'll…
This isn't relevant to the article.
Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a very awkward situation for blizzard, one they have ultimately created How do you figure they created it?
All these companies should refuse to self-censor for China. China does want western media and products. The fact that companies capitulate makes that the standard practice, and means China feels safe demanding it (or doesn't even need to because of the chilling effect). They can make a spectacle of any one company that refuses. I'm not saying that China wouldn't just ban them all, but it would at least mean there is…
> China does want western media and products.
Does it? It seems like China replicates products that are inconvenient to get otherwise.
Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you respond? A bit too late for that. Traditionally, reasonable companies preempted this kind of stuff by creating a clear separation between professional and personal matters, and not mixing the two. But hey, these days many people want companies to stick their nose into everyone's business, police "bad speech", create comfortable "spaces", enforce conduct and so on. Well, you reap what you sow. Any mechanism…
Perhaps not cleanly stated, but true. Blizzard quite explicitly catered to the LGBTQ+ demographic recently via an Overwatch promotion, a move that can easily be construed as political speech (and which was voluntarily censored by Blizzard in Russia and China). They stuck their feet into this arena, and are now realizing that making political statement can affect their revenue in both directions.
The fact that they voluntarily censored it in Russia and China is essentially definitive proof that they don’t actually care about the issue, but rather think it will gain them more money in the US. If they cared, they would have required that China and Russia be the bad guy and force them, but they’d clearly prefer to take the path of least resistance.