Fuck me. I am behind on the news.
So I don't know if you know, but Activision Blizzard has been a bit of a cunt the last few years. Besides Loot Boxes essentially being a "Gambling for kiddies" system designed to fleece all the money out of the player base that made Activision-Blizzard a juggernaut in the first place, Activision-Blizzard now seems to be aiming as a junior partner with the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Apparently, Blizzard isn't just willing to be a dick to its own player base. It's got to be a raging, submissive "give it to me hard, daddy" bitch to China.
About a year ago a Hong-Kongese Hearthstone esports player of the name Ng Wai Chun voiced support for the Hong Kong protests. He was subsequently banned from playing due to the support he gave. Apart from this being an absolutely cowardly act of submission to the CCP, it's part of a disturbing pattern of Western Business submission to Chinese Interests and essentially censoring themselves for the express desire of tapping that sweet, sweet Chinese market, regardless of moral or ethical concerns. Disney thanking the Xinjiang institutions responsible for Cultural Genocide of Uyghur Muslims for location rights to Mulan, Apple taking down Maps of Hong Kong useful to the protestors, tik-tok asking users to remove mentions of Tienanmen square. This pattern is disturbing.
Oh, poor little China. China is so small and needs defending, doesn't it? It's only got the highest GDP PPP in the world, and over a Billion in population, China is so small and pathetic. Boo-hoo. Stop saying mean things to China. It demands you to.
Activision-Blizzard is partly owned by the Chinese company Tencent, which might help explain how willing they are to bow to pressure and not take any political stance on China, or anything really.
Censorship, Uyghur cultural genocide, repression of LGBTQ+ matters and continuous pressure on Taiwan and the disgusting repression of Hong Kong protestors rightly protesting for their rights, the Chinese Government is not a moral ally of Democratic Nations. The increasingly happy self-censoring of companies to appease the increasingly important position that China holds in the world is worrying for someone who believes in Democracy and Freedom of Speech.
Nations are beginning to take notice, the US especially, as the US Congress puts forward the Preventing Foreign Censorship in America Act, to protect workers who profess critical views of the Chinese government. A shame it came in too late for Ng Wai Chung.
It's at this point I should say I hold no hatred for the Chinese people, my distaste is reserved for the CCP and it's censoring regime on the rest of the world. The Chinese people do not hold the blame for its government. Love the people, Hate the Government.
