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posted by janrinok on Saturday October 12 2019, @08:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the not-a-lone-voice dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1337

Unlike Blizzard, Epic Games says it won't ban players for political speech

Fortnite developer Epic Games said in a statement that it will not ban players or content creators for political speech. The message comes after Blizzard caught fire this week for banning a professional Hearthstone player for shouting a statement associated with Hong Kong protesters.

"Epic supports everyone's right to express their views on politics and human rights. We wouldn't ban or punish a Fortnite player or content creator for speaking on these topics," an Epic Games spokesperson told The Verge.

Over the weekend, Blizzard banned Hearthstone player Ng "Blitzchung" Wai Chung from participating in tournaments after he voiced support for the protesters in Hong Kong. In a post-game interview on Sunday, Blitzchung said, "Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our age!" Now, he cannot participate in any tournaments for an entire year (effective October 5th), and Blizzard is withholding any prize money he would have received in the Grandmasters tournament over the weekend. Those forfeited winnings have been reported to total around $10,000.

[...] Following Blizzard's decision, the company's own forums and subreddits dedicated to its games ballooned with messages from angry fans condemning the ban. The r/Blizzard subreddit went down for a few hours on Tuesday after the board was overrun with memes and posts calling for players to boycott Blizzard and its games like World of Warcraft,Overwatch, and Hearthstone.

Senators on both sides of the aisle have also taken notice, tweeting out statements criticizing Blizzard's move. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said, "Blizzard shows it is willing to humiliate itself to please the Chinese Communist Party." He continued, "No American company should censor calls for freedom to make a quick buck."


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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by looorg on Saturday October 12 2019, @01:28PM (4 children)

    by looorg (578) on Saturday October 12 2019, @01:28PM (#906312)

    Epic supports everyone's right to express their views on politics and human rights. We wouldn't ban or punish a Fortnite player or content creator for speaking on these topics

    Waiting for some future winner to go nuts and start to quote from Mein Kampf and then end the whole thing a proclamation of white power! Which Epic will be all fine with cause after all -- free political speech.

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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 12 2019, @02:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 12 2019, @02:06PM (#906324)

    for some future winner to go nuts and start to quote from Mein Kampf The Orange One's Twitter feed and then end the whole thing a proclamation of white power!

    FTFY

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by canopic jug on Saturday October 12 2019, @02:40PM (1 child)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Saturday October 12 2019, @02:40PM (#906330) Journal

    That's been the usual way to target and take down sites and services with a policy of free speech.

    --
    Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Monday October 14 2019, @12:18PM

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Monday October 14 2019, @12:18PM (#906903) Journal

      Don't need a random player, winner or not, to mouth off. All you need is an agent provocateur to obtain an account, then say stuff to trigger all the parents.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 12 2019, @03:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 12 2019, @03:18PM (#906342)

    Please do not conflate things. There is clear distinction between teachings of Adolf and the Jewish Construct of "White People". White people never existed in the history of the Earth until they were invented by the Jews. There were Romans, Greeks, Franks, Goths, Slavs, Saxons, and a million other ethnicities, no such thing as Whites (outside of Belarussian context). The international Jew, centered in the US, invented "White people" to hide in plain sight. It is a fake skin this creature can wear at will in order to do his filthy subversion. All thoise preaching "White Power", just like their Black counterparts, have been conned by the Jew. Black people also never existed until invented by the Jew. A black person is a mixed person that lives in the US, having on average 15% European 85% African ancestry.