BlizzCon protest organizers confirm plans are still \u201cfull steam ahead\u201d Fight for the Future\u2019s planned protests at BlizzCon 2019 are still \u201cfull steam ahead,\u201d head organizer Dayton Young has confirmed, despite Blizzard\u2019s \u201cstep in the right direction\u201d with the reduction of Hearthstone pro Wai Chung \u2018blitzchung\u2019 Ng\u2019s ban. The digital rights group first began planning their boycott and protests of Blizzard\u2019s massive annual event following Blitzchung\u2019s year ban for supporting Hong Kong live on-stream during the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament. While Blizzard has since reduced Blitzchung\u2019s punishment, Young has confirmed that the protests \u2014 which will see gamers and fans line the convention with umbrellas, signs, gas masks and character cosplays \u2014 will still be going ahead on BlizzCon\u2019s opening day. Fight for the Future also confirmed that the non-violent demonstration would be beginning at the main entrance of the convention center for \u201cmaximum visibility,\u201d and alleviated concerns about the legality of the protests with confirmation from the Anaheim Police Department. The demonstrations at the Anaheim Convention Centre this weekend would still be \u201cmoving forward full-steam ahead,\u201d Young said in a statement first shared by Gamespot, and emphasized that the issue was about more than just the Hearthstone bans. \u201cThat Blizzard has shown a willingness to re-evaluate their decision is a small step in the right direction, but make no mistake; Blizzard continues to punish these individuals despite widespread outrage from gamers around the world,\u201d he said. \u201cWe understand that game publishers and developers have a responsibility to moderate the content that appears on their platforms to ensure that gamers are safe from harassment, threats of violence, and other dangerous behavior. But silencing gamers who speak up about issues that affect their freedom makes us all less safe from oppression and institutional abuse.\u201d Fight for the Future\u2019s deputy director Evan Greer also agreed with the fact that the upcoming BlizzCon protests had become about more than \u201cjust about Blitzchung or Hong Kong.\u201d \u201cBlizzard\u2019s attempt to quell this controversy is cowardly and it\u2019s only going to backfire\u2026 they need to make a clear commitment to not act as the speech police on behalf of governments in general,\u201d she said when the November 1 event was first announced. \u201cBlizzard, and other companies who are engaging in censorship on behalf of an authoritarian government, are not going to get away with it. They have no idea what kind of Internet shitstorm they\u2019ve unleashed. We\u2019re going to make an example out of them to make sure that all companies know that throwing human rights and free expression under the bus will not be tolerated.\u201d The impending protests are just another strike added to the backlash Blizzard has been facing ever since first banning Blitzchung on October 8. The ongoing drama surrounding the support of Hong Kong has spilled into other scenes as well, with Magic the Gathering superstar Lee Shi Tian donning a red scarf as a face mask at the Mythic Championships, and League of Legends developers Riot Games being forced to clarify their position on the topic during the ongoing 2019 World Championship. Most recently, the world-at-large took notice after several U.S. representatives and members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter condemning Activision-Blizzard\u2019s decisions on the bans, and the company took a hit to the pocket when it was revealed car manufacturer Mitsubishi had pulled out of ongoing sponsorship agreements. Blizzard has yet to comment on the planned protests, and has not indicated whether action will be taken against the assembled demonstrators on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BlizzCon protest organizers confirm plans are still \u201cfull steam ahead\u201d Fight for the Future\u2019s planned protests at BlizzCon 2019 are still \u201cfull steam ahead,\u201d head organizer Dayton Young has confirmed, despite Blizzard\u2019s \u201cstep in the right direction\u201d with the reduction of Hearthstone pro Wai Chung \u2018blitzchung\u2019 Ng\u2019s ban. The digital rights group first began planning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}