Twitch users Hearthstone channel banned for posting about China China

Users who post posts such as “free Hong Kong” on the Twitch channel for Hearthstone, where the Hearthstone Masters Tour is currently streamed, will be banned. Blizzard previously banned a player who spoke out about the situation in Hong Kong.

Users of the channel noted that posts about China and Hong Kong will be removed immediately, they reported on Reddit, among others. Initially, a 24-hour ban was imposed on users posting pro-Hong Kong posts, but currently it appears to have been rolled back to just 10 minutes. Even at the time of writing, many messages about the situation in China and Hong Kong are still being posted, although the messages are packaged slightly differently by viewers to get through the censorship.

By the way, viewers also note that pro-China posts are being removed. That’s in line with Blizzard’s statement recently, which stated that it wants to keep politically oriented messages out of the game. The reason for this was the suspension of a professional player after a Hearthstone tournament, because he had expressed his support for Hong Kong in a response. The company was criticized for this, after which the suspension was shortened.

Not only Blizzard is trying to keep the conflict surrounding Hong Kong off its platforms. Earlier, Apple removed an application from its App Store that localized police in Hong Kong, something that is helping protesters plan their demonstrations. Apple’s decision came under a lot of criticism. Several members of Congress have sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook expressing concerns about the decision. They also did so in response to Blizzard’s decision to suspend a professional Hearthstone player.