Blizzard is reportedly issuing out bans for users who “troll” the Hearthstone forums by supporting the protests in Hong Kong. The bans are set to expire in 3019.
RespawnFirst is reporting that several users have reported being banned from the Hearthstone forums for openly showing their support for Hong Kong.
User Yega was apparently banned for 1,000 years for showing support for Hearthstone grand champion blitzchung, who yelled out “Liberate Hong Kong! Revolution of our times!” in a post-game interview. An image of the ban was shared across social media, indicating that the ban won’t be lifted until October 8th, 3019.
That wasn’t the only ban handed out, though.
Another user, Daros, was also banned for 1,000 years.
His profile has a “Liberate Hong Kong” slogan in it along with a ban notice saying that his account is unable to post until October 10th, 3019.
Banned for 1000 years on HS forum for liberate Hong Kong thread ?
These thousand-year bans is Blizzard’s way of silencing people from actively supporting the Hong Kong protests.
Their initial suspensions of blitzchung and the stream casters were reduced to six months after a huge public outcry by the gaming community, normies on social media, and even politicians.
Even the six month suspension was seen as too much by the international human rights organization, Access Now, who publicly razed Blizzard for human rights abuses.
Blizzard also hypocritically stated that they support “diversity” and “inclusion”, but only when it fits their own sociopolitical ends. As pointed out in a thread over on KotakuInAction2, Blizzard had no qualms about jumping all in on the Pride gimmick, with their casters and interviewers sporting Pride apparel, along with the audience and some e-sports competitors supporting the political movement, yet they’re punishing someone for standing up for the freedom of Hong Kong residents.
Blizzard: We don’t want divisive social or political views in our Esports. from r/kotakuinaction2
It’s quite apparent at this point that Blizzard has made their intentions clear, and they’ve certainly revealed who their true masters are.
(Thanks for the news tip Guardian EvaUnit02)
