In October 2019, a Hong Kong native gamer who goes by Blitzchung decided to wear a gas mask and goggles for an interview after his match in the Hearthstone Grandmaster streaming event. At the end of the interview, he repeated a Hong Kong protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time!” Because of this, Blitzchung was stripped of the $10,000 he would have won from the game and suspended from Blizzard games for one year. Blitzchung had been playing Hearthstone for four years before the suspension.
“Today I lost Hearthstone, it’s only a matter of four years.
But if Hong Kong is lost, it is a matter of a lifetime”
-Blitzchung
What is Blizzard?
Blizzard is an American-based gaming company that creates games, such as Hearthstone. The company has a
In an interview with the YouTube channel People Make Games, Blitzchung said he was motivated to make the statement by the people outside his window were protesting the new Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation Bill and Blitzchung wanted to show his support for the protestors. He goes on to say that Hong Kong is his home and he felt the need to express his opposition to the bill even if it was against Blizzard policy, saying it was “a must do thing.”
What even is this bill?
The Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation Bill was a bill proposed in February 2019 that would allow the Chinese government to arrest fugitives and companies that they work with if they commit “political dissent.” This bill could cause political witch hunts. Additionally, Hong Kong is somewhat separate from China in a “One country. Two Systems” kind of deal which expires in 2042. The citizens of Hong Kong fear the Chinese government trying to enforce more control over Hong Kong citizens than they are accustomed to. Hong Kong citizens took to protesting the bill until the bill was withdrawn in October of 2019, not long after the Blitzchung controversy.
Does this Hong Kong/China event really have anything to do with American Freedom of Speech?
Yes, because Blizzard is based in America and were contradicting other statements they had made. While they do have a policy against players using their platform for their personal controversial political views and that policy was broken, their reaction to it was not the best. Blizzard is believed to have this policy in place to appease the Chinese who give lots of money to the company. It is a “Profits over Persons” issue. They choose to keep the companies who give them money happy over the people play their games. Additionally, Blizzard is reported to support Freedom of Speech, saying “Every Voice Matters”, and having a policy with such heavy consequences for a player voicing his support for protestors in his city is contradictory to their statements.
Furthermore, Blizzard should have not suspended the interviewers who had absolutely nothing to do with Blitzchung’s statement. They did not ask any questions that could cause his statement nor did they voice any support or disapproval, but only moved to show they did not want to be a part of Blitzchung’s statement, yet they were punished. Blitzchung visited the the two interviewers in Taiwan because he felt bad for their suspension. Blizzard, on the other hand, didn’t even lift their suspensions.
This entire incident is an example of how businesses will appease countries and investors who give large amounts of money to them over their customers. When a customer wants to use their business’s platform to make a statement, the business is too ready to try to silence them to keep their investors happy. Simply they choose their profits over persons. They choose money over the freedom of speech.
Hi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteThe way you presented your argument here is really effective, especially the section which asks about how this bill affects American Freedom of Speech. It's very important to remember that even though we may be from different countries and have different world views, every decision made by a person or government can have an impact on another. Especially today, when the world is connected by social media and in ways like you outline in the online gaming community, this is more true than ever. This protest is something I hadn't heard about, and it's interesting to learn about, because online gaming is such an intriguing thing that is so important to many of us.
Hey thank you for writing about this! I saw a lot of posts about it a few months ago, but never heard the whole story until now. It seems as though every issue involving large companies is a "Profit over Persons" issue. Another example of a company who does things like this is Disney. They exist to make as many people happy as possible, so they make the most profit--rather than making films which seek to challenge the status quo and encourage positive cultural change. For example, they had the "First gay representation in a Marvel movie!" and it was a 10 second long clip where a man said "my husband." This clip was pandering towards the LGBT+ community with no real heart behind it. Further, the moment was short enough that most homophobes could ignore it. Rather than craft a superhero or other outstanding character who could have had a cool story and also have been gay, they just slipped in a single moment for a nameless character and had the nerve to call it "representation." This isn't representation, and this didn't inspire cultural change. It was simple, meaningless pandering and nothing but, so as to maximize profits. That's capitalism for ya!
ReplyDeleteI remember this! People were loosing their minds on social media about this a little while back. I really like the basis of your argument. I do have a question to ponder on this though. Technically this tournament was streamed online and even though he represented Hong Kong in the tournament, since he is on an international stage, does the Blizzard organization have the right to say that he cannot receive the 10k? If not, how should the winning be given out to the rest of the competitors? I understand what he did was upsetting towards certain members of the LGBT community, but I don't think he should have received as much backlash as he did.
ReplyDelete