Board 8 > Blizzard bans and withholds prize money from hearthstone player for HK support

(+) Yeah! (+)

Personally I'm not too fussed at NBA and Blizzard and whatever company deciding to bow down to pressure. American outrage is beneficial to the protesters imo.

I just hope more of this outrage is directly at the CCP. This incident won't affect them much for now the rest of the world realize must what scumbags (an understatement) they are. They are hell bent on destroying my home and I wish nothing less than their complete collapse.

GranzonEx posted...

the twitter account or the user?

The twitter account. He works for the publicity department of the communist party of China. China Daily is their English language newspaper.

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Is there anywhere that says China asked Blizzard to do this?

It seems to me from the speed of reaction, that they just saw someone say something anti China and IMMEDIATELY acted to enforce China censor on China's behalf before China ever has a chance to take issue with them

That's the most terrifying thing at all - that Blizzard would be willing to completely destroy someone like this just out of fear of that China might cause problems for them doing business in China if they don't. If they are willing to do that to maintain their ability to do business in China, then as far as I'm concerned they are completely under the thumb of the Chinese government, and will do it to anyone.

They didn't just ignore it or make a statement that the comments by this player don't reflect the opinions of Blizzard or something, they went out of their way to completely remove this guy to appease China's taste for blood. Like you can see the thought process of Blizzard here - "Oh, this guy said something pro Hong Kong. We have to take action immediately before China blames us for this and bans us from selling WoW in China". Would they have done this if the guy had made ANY OTHER sort of political statement? I don't think so. It's entirely out of fear of China.

TomNook, do you really think this is the normal and acceptable way for business to protect their brand?
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handsomeboy2012 posted...

Personally I'm not too fussed at NBA and Blizzard and whatever company deciding to bow down to pressure. American outrage is beneficial to the protesters imo.

I just hope more of this outrage is directly at the CCP. This incident won't affect them much for now the rest of the world realize must what scumbags (an understatement) they are. They are hell bent on destroying my home and I wish nothing less than their complete collapse.

Are you actually in Hong Kong? What's the situation actually like from your perspective?
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Suprak the Stud posted...

GranzonEx posted...

the twitter account or the user?

The twitter account. He works for the publicity department of the communist party of China. China Daily is their English language newspaper.

yikes

the CCP has been known to buy/create thousands of social media accounts to spam their propaganda too
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https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/

so good

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CoolCly posted...

Are you actually in Hong Kong? What's the situation actually like from your perspective?

I view this entire protest as a reaction to the gradual and deliberate erosion of our promised rights and freedoms over the last 22 years. They started peacefully, but the government refused to budge and unleashed the police, which led to continuous escalation of violence.

The big issue now is police brutality. Basically they have a blank cheque to do whatever it takes to crush us. This meant indiscriminate arrests for flimsy reasons, excessive use of guns, tear gas and batons, intimidation and torture. You could be stopped and searched for walking around with a black T-shirt, or beaten up because you shouted insults at them, or charged with rioting (up to 10 years imprisonment) because you happened to be in the vicinity of a protest. None of them the cops have to face any consequences at all.

Last week the government has invoked emergency powers. Face masks were banned, but they are probably going to abuse it to impose more laws like a curfew, ban of public assembly, seizure of property, and cancellation of district elections (which they are likely to lose btw). A lot of us view this as equivalent to suspending the constitution and legislature.

If you want my perspective... fuck the cops, fuck the CCP, fuck the government, and fuck their supporters. I value my life too much to actually go out to fight, but I do try to spread awareness online when I have the time. If the movement fails in the end I'm going to emigrate.

More people defending blizzard here than I expected; pretty lame.

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Suprak the Stud posted...

GranzonEx posted...

the twitter account or the user?

The twitter account. He works for the publicity department of the communist party of China. China Daily is their English language newspaper.

And even if he wasn't, the thread is 16 months old. Think about how much more we've learned about the atrocities recently.
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GranzonEx posted...

the twitter account or the user?

whynotboth.gif

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The irony about stories like this is China still doesn't seem to realize that the perception of them is already so negative that all they achieve in situations like this is reminding the world how much they already hate it's government and everything it stands for.

Like it doesn't actually help the cause at all.
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R/hearthstone is pretty nutty right now.
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Meow1000 posted...

The irony about stories like this is China still doesn't seem to realize that the perception of them is already so negative that all they achieve in situations like this is reminding the world how much they already hate it's government and everything it stands for.

Like it doesn't actually help the cause at all.

I don't think they really care about how the rest of the world sees them. It's all about preventing their own citizens from realizing they're living in a fucked up authoritarian country and could be better served by democracy.

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handsomeboy2012 posted...

I view this entire protest as a reaction to the gradual and deliberate erosion of our promised rights and freedoms over the last 22 years. They started peacefully, but the government refused to budge and unleashed the police, which led to continuous escalation of violence.

The big issue now is police brutality. Basically they have a blank cheque to do whatever it takes to crush us. This meant indiscriminate arrests for flimsy reasons, excessive use of guns, tear gas and batons, intimidation and torture. You could be stopped and searched for walking around with a black T-shirt, or beaten up because you shouted insults at them, or charged with rioting (up to 10 years imprisonment) because you happened to be in the vicinity of a protest. None of them the cops have to face any consequences at all.

Last week the government has invoked emergency powers. Face masks were banned, but they are probably going to abuse it to impose more laws like a curfew, ban of public assembly, seizure of property, and cancellation of district elections (which they are likely to lose btw). A lot of us view this as equivalent to suspending the constitution and legislature.

If you want my perspective... fuck the cops, fuck the CCP, fuck the government, and fuck their supporters. I value my life too much to actually go out to fight, but I do try to spread awareness online when I have the time. If the movement fails in the end I'm going to emigrate.

stay safe. I hope things work out for you.
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@TomNook

No time to respond right now, but everything you said is pretty reasonable
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Oh hey i got banned from blizzard reddit for making a post saying i disagreed with blizzards decision and that censorship was troubling.

Nothing vulgar or anything in the comment. And it was a reply to someone elses thread, not even my own.

Great world we live in.

They turned blizzard reddit private.
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LordoftheMorons posted...

More people defending blizzard here than I expected; pretty lame.

This is honestly WAY less people than I was expecting.
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oh. lol. Well thats just as bad. Discussion was mostly pretty civil from what I saw.
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Peace___Frog posted...

R/hearthstone is pretty nutty right now.

Its glorious. The floodgates are open.

And red, that was BS. R/blizzard is locked as a whole and theyre banning everyone.
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TomNook posted...

Fair enough, but I must ask you, where do you draw the line?

If the guy had said "god bless america" would you have been ok with blizzard taking away his prize money? Because I would put that phrase further toward the line than "I don't like innocent protesters being killed"

Acting like this is a political issue, and not a common human decency statement doesn't make you objective, it just means you've been manipulated successfully by the powers that be.
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azuarc posted...

KingButz posted...

I don't think anyone is disputing that Blizzard is allowed to do what they're doing.

It doesn't make it any less cowardly, despicable, and chilling.

Let's pretend for a second that Blizzard is not a corporation, but rather than a single business owner who oversees everything and has the moral consciousness to make a stand for his beliefs. If there are awful enough things in China for that guy to even begin to consider damaging his financial interests in the name of "doing what is right," do you think that this event on its own would be enough of a catalyst to spur him into action? If you were that guy, responsible for literally billions of dollars, and have the economic and social foothold in China that you do, would you allow it to be compromised by one player's brief moment of hijacking your company's interests?

Even the most progressive, freedom-fighting business owners isn't going to make that call. They'll let it be a strike against China that they'll remember for later. They'll also remember how much pushback the company receives for what looks like bootlicking to some simply for not wanting to get caught in the middle. But the owner's not going to allow what happened on his watch. It is, in its own way, damaging to the company, even without considering the catastrophic damage that being banned by the PRC would do.

That's if one guy had to make the decision. A board would never. So please take your moral outrage elsewhere. Yes, China is awful. Yes, "something" should be done. But if you're going to attack Blizzard because they were shoved into a situation where it was made blatantly obvious that they don't want to make waves at this time, then you have to attack every other company that does business in China...which is basically every company that isn't some Mom-and-Pop operation. The only reason you're picking on just Blizzard is because an individual tried to make his little bit of "something" happen at their expense, and they made it very clear to him that it's coming at their expense.

You care more about money than human lives. Also you care nothing for the casters who did nothing wrong but were fired. You aren't intelligent or savvy, just a puppet. I am the biggest blizzard fan and love most of their games. I am against this because it was horrid.
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DoomTheGyarados posted...

You care more about money than human lives. Also you care nothing for the casters who did nothing wrong but were fired. You aren't intelligent or savvy, just a puppet. I am the biggest blizzard fan and love most of their games. I am against this because it was horrid.

So, horrid, Chris. Most horrid thing ever. I don't know how people will ever sleep again at night due to this corporation banning and taking money from a player who was a contestant in their tournament for trying to make a political statement on their platform.

How will we ever sleep again due to the atrocity of this situation.

Do you guys ever stop embellishing to the ends of the earth your positions? Like, someone here was like omg they are supporting killing people blah blah blah. Nope.

You disagree with their decision. Got it, Chris. The theatrics and dramatics are just unnecessary and makes people not want to agree with you because you mislead and try appealing to a fake sense of value and virtue in your posts.

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China also doesnt have all of the power here. Its definitely an imbalanced relationship, but if every western brand stood up to China and they banned them all in retaliation, Chinese citizens would be pissed. They like western brands. These companies need to unite in standing up to China now before this solidifies as the norm.

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DoomTheGyarados posted...

You care more about money than human lives. Also you care nothing for the casters who did nothing wrong but were fired. You aren't intelligent or savvy, just a puppet. I am the biggest blizzard fan and love most of their games. I am against this because it was horrid.

The casters didn't even want their faces on video when he started to say it because they didn't want to be on any images that get passed around with the message. They literally ducked behind their chairs so they wouldn't be on screen.

Blizzard and China didn't care and purged them from existence anyway.
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So glad I play FFXIV now. Never going back to WoW, and I dont even want to play hearthstone despite having bought the single-player content.
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azuarc posted...

KingButz posted...

I don't think anyone is disputing that Blizzard is allowed to do what they're doing.

It doesn't make it any less cowardly, despicable, and chilling.

Let's pretend for a second that Blizzard is not a corporation, but rather than a single business owner who oversees everything and has the moral consciousness to make a stand for his beliefs. If there are awful enough things in China for that guy to even begin to consider damaging his financial interests in the name of "doing what is right," do you think that this event on its own would be enough of a catalyst to spur him into action? If you were that guy, responsible for literally billions of dollars, and have the economic and social foothold in China that you do, would you allow it to be compromised by one player's brief moment of hijacking your company's interests?

Even the most progressive, freedom-fighting business owners isn't going to make that call. They'll let it be a strike against China that they'll remember for later. They'll also remember how much pushback the company receives for what looks like bootlicking to some simply for not wanting to get caught in the middle. But the owner's not going to allow what happened on his watch. It is, in its own way, damaging to the company, even without considering the catastrophic damage that being banned by the PRC would do.

That's if one guy had to make the decision. A board would never. So please take your moral outrage elsewhere. Yes, China is awful. Yes, "something" should be done. But if you're going to attack Blizzard because they were shoved into a situation where it was made blatantly obvious that they don't want to make waves at this time, then you have to attack every other company that does business in China...which is basically every company that isn't some Mom-and-Pop operation. The only reason you're picking on just Blizzard is because an individual tried to make his little bit of "something" happen at their expense, and they made it very clear to him that it's coming at their expense.

Most 14th Amendment lawsuits were made by a singular corporation looking for the rights of a person.

So not only us your post laughably bad, its flat out ignorant.
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red13n posted...

The casters didn't even want their faces on video when he started to say it because they didn't want to be on any images that get passed around with the message. They literally ducked behind their chairs so they wouldn't be on screen.

Blizzard and China didn't care and purged them from existence anyway.

Obviously I disagree with Blizzard here but the stories I've read say that the casters asked the player something like "Okay, say those 8 words you've been wanting to say now" or something like that. They were also giggling while their heads were under the desk so the casters aren't exactly innocent in Blizzard's eyes if that's the case.
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Corrik7 posted...

DoomTheGyarados posted...

You care more about money than human lives. Also you care nothing for the casters who did nothing wrong but were fired. You aren't intelligent or savvy, just a puppet. I am the biggest blizzard fan and love most of their games. I am against this because it was horrid.

So, horrid, Chris. Most horrid thing ever. I don't know how people will ever sleep again at night due to this corporation banning and taking money from a player who was a contestant in their tournament for trying to make a political statement on their platform.

How will we ever sleep again due to the atrocity of this situation.

Do you guys ever stop embellishing to the ends of the earth your positions? Like, someone here was like omg they are supporting killing people blah blah blah. Nope.

You disagree with their decision. Got it, Chris. The theatrics and dramatics are just unnecessary and makes people not want to agree with you because you mislead and try appealing to a fake sense of value and virtue in your posts.

God, what a rude and unnecessary post from someone who was not involved in the conversation and has inserted themselves to make sure they are openly and notoriously on the sides of a poor little corporation that just wants to infringe on people's rights to earn their tiny little bit of money.
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Fuck Blizzard. I'm disgusted in them. And yes, they might technically have a 'reasonable reason' from a corporate perspective to do this that makes sense to them, but fuck that. Profits should not be an end-all-be-all. Maybe wanting politics to 'stay out of games' is a sentiment I tend to agree with in most cases, but there is no 'neutral ground' here when people are being oppressed by a tyrannical government and are getting murdered in the streets.

Blizzard has a legal right to do this, sure. But consumers also have a right to decide that Blizzard doing so is disgusting and that theyd rather take their money elsewhere.

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scarletspeed7 posted...

God, what a rude and unnecessary post from someone who was not involved in the conversation and has inserted themselves to make sure they are openly and notoriously on the sides of a poor little corporation that just wants to infringe on people's rights to earn their tiny little bit of money.

God, what a rude and unnecessary post from someone who tries to ride the please be my friend train and inserted themselves from outside the conversation to make sure they are openly and stupidly supporting theatrics and virtue signaling of the poor little liberal that just wants to embellish everything to the nth degree to earn their tiny little bit of virtue.

Like, gtfo of here with this nonsense.

Blizzard didn't infringe on anyone's rights. They aren't supporting killing people. People aren't being killed in Hong Kong (right now). The Chinese soldiers haven't even had any incidents with protesters besides a warning for laser pointers being pointed at their bases.

Exactly 1 person has died who was in a group of people attacking a Hong Kong Police unit who panicked and fired a shot killing the person.

If you agree with Hong Kong, which I think most of us do, that is great. If you agree with the message of the Hearthstone player, that is great. However, at the end of the day there was a rule established to stop the image of a company taking a hit that affects their finances. He broke it. He was punished as the rule stated. That is it.

Sitting here acting like some grave injustice that will never be able to be forgiven has been done is laughable. It's overreacting and just being a part of outrage culture theatrically.

And, I just laugh at all the people who are immediately jumping to the boycott angle. Surprising to say the least.

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Corrik7 posted...

DoomTheGyarados posted...

You care more about money than human lives. Also you care nothing for the casters who did nothing wrong but were fired. You aren't intelligent or savvy, just a puppet. I am the biggest blizzard fan and love most of their games. I am against this because it was horrid.

So, horrid, Chris. Most horrid thing ever. I don't know how people will ever sleep again at night due to this corporation banning and taking money from a player who was a contestant in their tournament for trying to make a political statement on their platform.

How will we ever sleep again due to the atrocity of this situation.

Do you guys ever stop embellishing to the ends of the earth your positions? Like, someone here was like omg they are supporting killing people blah blah blah. Nope.

You disagree with their decision. Got it, Chris. The theatrics and dramatics are just unnecessary and makes people not want to agree with you because you mislead and try appealing to a fake sense of value and virtue in your posts.

I don't care about the player and his money, really.

It's the fact that Blizzard is an American country who would rather cater to totalitarian censorship than support Western free speech values.

They will take Chinese money and then not only look the other way as that same country commits human rights violations, but support the regime's propaganda efforts to stifle the voice of the opposition.

It's completely pathetic and unamerican, and an embarrassment to our society.
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I think corporations need to have ethics and responsibilities, and we need to change laws to enforce this
And it needs to be done soon
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Corrik7 posted...

God, what a rude and unnecessary post from someone who tries to ride the please be my friend train and inserted themselves from outside the conversation to make sure they are openly and stupidly supporting theatrics and virtue signaling of the poor little liberal that just wants to embellish everything to the nth degree to earn their tiny little bit of virtue.

Well I figured you were fine with people copying you.
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KingButz posted...

I don't care about the player and his money, really.

It's the fact that Blizzard is an American country who would rather cater to totalitarian censorship than support Western free speech values.

They will take Chinese money and then not only look the other way as that same country commits human rights violations, but support the regime's propaganda efforts to stifle the voice of the opposition.

It's completely pathetic and unamerican, and an embarrassment to our society.

Well, think of it this way. Because this person made that one comment, they are either gonna take a hit from Chinese consumers (their likely second biggest market) or take a hit from their likely biggest market (America) for taking action against it.

This in no way happens if someone didn't make a political statement on their platform and put them in a controversial spot.

Thus, why the rule exists.

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Brayze_II posted...

I think corporations need to have ethics and responsibilities, and we need to change laws to enforce this
And it needs to be done soon

How are you going to change laws to enforce that in regards to something like this which is clearly subjective. If anything, that is censorship and a totalitarian government, which is what many are arguing against China for.

You are arguing that American corporations should be forced by law to act a way, which is what China is doing!

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It seems most people's concerns are about the situation in Hong Kong, not really about Blizzard's finances, Corrik.

I think they understand it makes sense why Blizzard would do this financially, they just don't agree with the bigger picture morality of it.


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Corrik7 posted...

Brayze_II posted...

I think corporations need to have ethics and responsibilities, and we need to change laws to enforce this
And it needs to be done soon

How are you going to change laws to enforce that in regards to something like this which is clearly subjective. If anything, that is censorship and a totalitarian government, which is what many are arguing against China for.

You are arguing that American corporations should be forced by law to act a way, which is what China is doing!

No shit I'm arguing that, but I want the enforcement to be towards social requirements and responsibilities I agree with.
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If Corrik was alive in the 40s he would call someone speaking against the nazis virtue signaling.
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DoomTheGyarados posted...

If Corrik was alive in the 40s he would call someone speaking against the nazis virtue signaling.

Just admit the fact you are trumping up the actual circumstances insanely beyond reality to try and act like people are
DoomTheGyarados posted...

You care more about money than human lives.

.

Like that comment is so ridiculous for the scenario, Chris. Seriously?

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DoomTheGyarados posted...

If Corrik was alive in the 40s he would call someone speaking against the nazis virtue signaling.

Only if it was somewhere outside the free speech corner, infringing on people's entertainment or daily lives.

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No, perfectly fits. Excusing corporations under the umbrella of their profits when people's freedoms are being strippee from them is exactly that. I have embellished nothing.
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pjbasis posted...

It seems most people's concerns are about the situation in Hong Kong, not really about Blizzard's finances, Corrik.

I think they understand it makes sense why Blizzard would do this financially, they just don't agree with the bigger picture morality of it.

Like I said, agreeing with the Hong Kong cause is fine. Boycotting Blizzard and acting like Blizzard is the scum of the earth for acting like how a corporation should in trying to protect their bottom line in ways clearly establishing in their own rules is ridiculous.

They are allowed to want to not have controversial things stated on their stream platform and to expect it from the competitors they are giving the privilege to compete on their platform.

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Honestly if you want the "outrage culture lol" thing to go away reeling it in a bit is good so I approve of Corrik's message here.

You can be for or against what Blizzard did without it being about THINK OF DA HUMAN LIVEZ ;_; ;_; ;_;
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DoomTheGyarados posted...

No, perfectly fits. Excusing corporations under the umbrella of their profits when people's freedoms are being strippee from them is exactly that. I have embellished nothing.

It doesn't. You said "people are getting killed". You said people are "caring more about money than lives". You are inserting ridiculous hyperbole to try and act morally higher and of higher virtue.

You can agree that Blizzard had the right to do that and still value human life just as much as you do.

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Corrik7 posted...

acting like how a corporation should in trying to protect their bottom line

I feel like this isn't nearly as cut and dry as you put it.


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One of the big contributors is that Blizzard's goodwill has basically been in the tank and it's been like this for a while This is a company that fired 800 people after posting record numbers because they wanted more money from investors. This a company that canceled all esports for a game (hots) right before Christmas after telling players a few months prior they would have the Championships.

Imagine if a company with even less goodwill did this. Like EA.

Brayze_II posted...

I think corporations need to have ethics and responsibilities, and we need to change laws to enforce this
And it needs to be done soon

So, I understand the sentiment here, but this is something that is basically impossible to really enforce or put where the guidelines are really understood. It just causes too many other issues overall.

Corrik7 posted...

They are allowed to want to not have controversial things stated on their stream platform and to expect it from the competitors they are giving the privilege to compete on their platform.

and consumers are allowed to boycott them for exercising that right in a way they find objectionable

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