Minneapolis saw one of the most brutal crimes committed by a police officer in recent times. The USA always had a bad reputation when it came to racial bias in the police force, but this was a new low. George Floyd was tortured until he expired by Officer Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police Department. His death saw millions come out in the streets to protest against police brutalities and systemic racism as part of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The protests have become violent, resulting in quite some destruction of property – the protestors asking the authorities to take responsibility for their actions.
Numerous companies have come out and voiced their support for the movement. Many digital events planned this week have been canceled, including the big PlayStation reveal event that promised to show us quite a few next-gen exclusives. All companies have come out and openly stated that they stand against racism and inequality, and Blizzard was no different.
— Activision Blizzard (@ATVI_AB) June 1, 2020
The only difference here is that it comes out in sharp controversy about what they have practiced earlier. Yep, Blizzard was guilty of banning Hearthstone professional player Blitzchung for stating his support for the Hong Kong protests in the post-match interview. If that wasn’t enough, the two casters responsible for the interview were put on probation. That led to a massive outrage by the community, with protestors rallying outside Blizzcon 2019 with ‘Winnie the Pooh’ costumes.
People on Twitter have been openly vocal when Blizzard’s statement when they posted it – making sure to point out two words – Hong Kong.
User ‘Vokul’ mentions that he didn’t see Blizzard standing with Hong Kong during the #FreeHongKong protests.
https://twitter.com/bad_superboy/status/1267487700929654785
User ‘The Act Man’ points out that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick had pointed out in the past that their gaming platform isn’t for political views. Considering that, a statement on the #BlackLivesMatter movement is nothing but hypocrisy.
Ironic. pic.twitter.com/VyhQUAzwK6
— The Act Man (@TheActMan_YT) June 2, 2020
User ‘give me something to break’ has come up with one of the most creative tweets as a protest against the selective outrage. It’s useless to preach what you don’t practice – and definitely not when no action is being taken to benefit marginalized communities. Big corporates like Activision Blizzard earn a lot of money – putting some into bridging the gap for the marginalized communities certainly sends out a stronger message than a random tweet acknowledging a movement.
— wounded and disabled veteran (@crowthDOJ) June 1, 2020
What’s funny is that Reddit hasn’t seen the same level of activity as Twitter. r/blizzard has a post about the apology, and currently has only a few comments, both pointing out that the selective outrage is wrong. r/hearthstone doesn’t seem to have noticed the controversial apology post at all, yet this is the subreddit which had seen the most action since the Blitzchung ban.