Corporations Fight Backlash Over Hong Kong Protests

October 10th, 2019 - 12:56 PM EDT by Matt Schimkowitz

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chinese flag with the blizzard logo standing in for the moon

As the Hong Kong protests against the Chinese government's extradition bill stretches into its fourth month, corporations are beginning to feel the strain of the conflict stateside. Companies with Chinese interests, such as Apple, Google, Blizzard, Disney and more, are facing extensive consumer backlash following a number of controversial maneuvers that many believe show bias towards the Chinese government.

Blizzard, who became the first major corporation to suffer a backlash after the company issued a year-long ban against Chung Ng Wai, the winner of Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament, for expressing support for the Hong Kong protestors, has been accused of blocking people from deleting their accounts.

"So now Blizzard have disabled ALL FOUR authentication methods to actively stop people from deleting their accounts," @Espsilverfire2 wrote in a viral tweet. "This is beyond disgusting. Spread awareness of this. #BoycottBlizzard."

Other Blizzard customers have also admitted to deleting their accounts of the company's aggression towards Chung Ng Wai, also known as Blitzchung. However, some of have reported difficulties in doing so, as well.

An anonymous Blizzard employee claimed that the company's bias towards the Chinese government conflicts where their ethos, but the money has made the stakes too high.

"Blizzard makes a lot of money in China, but now the company is in this awkward position where we can’t abide by our values," they told the Daily Beast.

Blizzard isn't the only one facing the pressure caused by the protests. Disney-owned ESPN has forbidden employees from discussing Chinese politics when discussing a since-deleted tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morely, who tweeted his support of the Hong Kong protestors.

In an internal memo reported by Deadspin, ESPN Senior News Director has restricted that any discussions of Morely to basketball.

Deadspin writes:

"Any discussion of the Daryl Morey story avoid any political discussions about China and Hong Kong, and instead focus on the related basketball issues. The memo, obtained by Deadspin, explicitly discouraged any political discussion about China and Hong Kong. Multiple ESPN sources confirmed to Deadspin that network higher-ups were keeping a close eye on how the topic was discussed on ESPN’s airwaves.

The story was the topic of much conversation and condemnation on the /r/worldnews subreddit, where the thread about the ban received more than 21,000 points (97% upvoted) and 1,400 comments.

Finally, earlier today, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple and Google both removed applications "associated with Hong Kong’s antigovernment protests from their digital stores in recent days, thrusting the two Silicon Valley giants into the controversy engulfing U.S. companies related to the unrest."

According to the Journal, the apps violate rules "related to sensitive events."

The Hong Kong protests began on June 9th, 2019. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents have demonstrated in the streets against legislation that would allow the Chinese government to extradite Hong Kong nationals to China and challenging the nation's autonomy.

In September calls against the Chinese government grew significantly as China was accused of using police brutality against protestors and citizens.



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