Gamers for Freedom campaign challenges Blizzard’s censorship and pushed game companies to stand up for free speech

Fight for the Future just launched a new campaign in response to Blizzard’s controversial decision to ban a professional gamer from Hong Kong for speaking out about the situation there. 

Here’s the site: GamersForFreedom.com 

It features a scorecard to keep track of which companies have publicly pledged to support the freedom of their players, and which companies have not. We’re also organizing gamers in a discord channel and planning to escalate our protests on this until Blizzard reverses its decision and other companies pledge to not make the same mistake. 

Like many others in the tech and gaming worlds, we were extremely disappointed to learn that Blizzard banned a professional gamer and confiscated his tournament winnings because he advocated for his own political freedom. But we’ve been encouraged to see the immediate, widespread public backlash. And some game companies — such as Epic and Immutable — have made public pledges to never ban or punish their players for speaking about politics and human rights.

Here’s a quote you can attribute to, Dayton Young, Product Director at Fight for the Future, (pronouns he/him): 

“Gamers deserve to know which companies are willing to engage in censorship on behalf of authoritarian regimes and which companies will defend basic freedom of expression. Blizzard has engaged in blatant censorship and should immediately reverse its decision to ban Ng Wai Chung, restore his tournament winnings, and repair its relationships with the livestream casters. No gamers should be punished for expressing their views on politics and human rights. And no game company should ever ban or penalize players for advocating for their own political freedom. We call on all game developers and publishers to make a public commitment to support the rights of their customers, employees, and fans to freely express their beliefs in America, in Hong Kong, in China, and around the globe.”