4 ms·
It’s extremely irresponsible for blizzard to host a massive platform for speech and pretend that platform exists in a vacuum outside of current events. (Read: p
by ixtli 7y ago
It’s extremely irresponsible for blizzard to host a massive platform for speech and pretend that platform exists in a vacuum outside of current events. (Read: politics.) In the same way that public platforms are dangerous when used for hate speech, they’re also dangerous when those advocating for positive change are banned from them.
Whatever Blizzard set out to do, it’s exceptionally naive not to acknowledge that demand changes a public technology.
… but of course we know what this is about. We know it’s about not wanting to cut off a large revenue stream.
- anonimouse5t43w 7y agoFIFA also bans politics from its platform.
- throwaway2048 7y agoBlizzard dosen't give a shit about it being political speech, what they care about is that it might upset the Chinese Communist Party, and their profits in the process. https://i.imgur.com/xQfRoPa.jpg https://i.imgur.com/xQfRoPa.jpg https://kotaku.com/college-hearthstone-players-who-held-up-free-hong-kong-1838953931 https://kotaku.com/college-hearthstone-players-who-held-up-f... Them pretending otherwise is a complete, outright lie.
- bertil 7y agoI’m surprised to quote FIFA as an example but on that point, they have had fairly exemplary approach [0]. Players occasionally try to make political statements, and Fifa has a progressive take on infractions. An unexpected outburst after a victory is usually met with a stern conversation, possibly leaked to the press for good measure; repeated offence, something egregious acting after being explicitly warned not to lead to symbolic fines. You’d need to really cross a line to get near the sanction that Blizzard thought was appropriate for someone expressing a widespread sentiment in his home country. [0] https://www.lawinsport.com/content/sports/item/politics-and-sport-how-fifa-uefa-and-the-ioc-regulate-political-statements-by-athletes https://www.lawinsport.com/content/sports/item/politics-and-...
- ixtli 7y agoI didn't know that as I'm not up on soccer, but I'm not surprised. This is liberal ideology at its most pure, and it leads to a great many of the social problems we have today. Some know taking a moral position will disenfranchise some subset and reduce their income, and some know that society would recoil (usually rightly!) at their views if they were forced to spell them out.
- harimau777 7y agoAre you perhaps using "liberal ideology" in a way that's different than what I'm used to? It seems that Blizzard's decisions were made in service of Capitalism which is a belief system that I associate more with conservative rather than liberal ideology.
- wpietri 7y agoFIFA is also notoriously corrupt, so I'm not sure I'd be looking for them for ethical leadership. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_corruption_case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_corruption_case