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Executive Order banning Tencent could be devestating
5 years ago
General
okay guys, this is huge... like super huge...
and I have some very mixed feelings about this
Trump has issued an executive order banning chinese companies and transactions with chinese companies. like Tencent for example and this is huge. in case you don't remember: Tencent is the company behind censoring Freedom of Speech during the Blitzchung affair and many many other incidents like that. its a huge chinese company that western companies are forced to work with, otherwise they get no access to the chinese market. this in turn means that Tencent is working very closely with the chinese government and enforcing rules of censorship enforced by the chinese government.
Tencent also owns 100% of Riot Games, the company that made League of Legends, it owns 40% of Ubisoft and there are many other companies, like Activision Blizzard, that Tencent has its slimy fingers in to ensure that chinese censorship rules are enforced and that dissident voice supporting freedom of speech in Hong Kong or China are silenced.
so, on one hand, I'm kinda happy to see that this company is on the receiving end of a giant "fuck you middlefinger". on the other hand though, this order was issued by Trump and his administration who is just as much of an authoritarian than the chinese government is and just like the chinese government, Trump has no issue whatsoever to the order police, who's purpose it is to protect & serve and uphold the law, to brutally attack peaceful protesters just so that Trump can cross a street and take a photo with a bible in his hand.
so him issuing this executive order, while at first giving me a sensation of elation of joy because fuck chinese censorship, also fills me with worry and dread... not because I particular like Tencent, far from it, Tencent can burn in hell for all i care, but because of TikTok and WeChat. now, I don't use TikTok and WeChat myself but there are many other people who use them as they are social media. they are also owned by a chinese company... which probably means that anyone who actually uses either of these services is being spied upon, even here in the west.
I mean, come on people... this is the chinese government we're talking about, you really trust these guys to keep their censoring within the borders on china? I don't and I wouldn't be surprised if users who post things like "freedom for Hong Kong" end up with their messages disappearing and their accounts being banned...
anyways...
one of the things about TikTok and WeChat is though, even with the very high likelihood of users being spied upon, both services have been used a lot by people within the US to voice their opinions, displeasures and disagreements not only with Trump himself but also the Trump administration.
considering that the next election is coming up rapidly and that Trump's popularity has been dropping dramatically (and justifiably so), I cannot help but shake the feeling that this ban is an attempt by Trump to enforce some censorship on his own. see, the thing is... despite all the jokes we like to make, Trump isn't exactly stupid. he knows that if he just bans TikTok and WeChat, everyone would accuse him of censorship. if he bans all chinese companies however, these accusations are a lot harder to prove...
so you can see why i have very mixed feelings about this... i both celebrate and loathe it at the same time, its weird...
anyways, for us gamers, this is likewise a pretty big fucking deal 'cause like i said at the start: Tencent owns Riot Games who are responsible for League of Legends. I don't play LoL myself but there's a lot of people that do, probably even some of you guys reading this. and like i said, Tencent has its fingers in many other companies as well
its very likely that this is something that will be challenged and fought out in court, we are likely to see lawsuits over this
but either way, the future has become very uncertain in many ways for us gamers. are many of the games continue business as usual? are they gonna change in some weird ways that none of us can foresee as of yet? or are some of them going to seize operation completely and simply stop existing?
I don't know guys... we'll have to wait and find out
source Arch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgz7bA1OjQ0
and I have some very mixed feelings about this
Trump has issued an executive order banning chinese companies and transactions with chinese companies. like Tencent for example and this is huge. in case you don't remember: Tencent is the company behind censoring Freedom of Speech during the Blitzchung affair and many many other incidents like that. its a huge chinese company that western companies are forced to work with, otherwise they get no access to the chinese market. this in turn means that Tencent is working very closely with the chinese government and enforcing rules of censorship enforced by the chinese government.
Tencent also owns 100% of Riot Games, the company that made League of Legends, it owns 40% of Ubisoft and there are many other companies, like Activision Blizzard, that Tencent has its slimy fingers in to ensure that chinese censorship rules are enforced and that dissident voice supporting freedom of speech in Hong Kong or China are silenced.
so, on one hand, I'm kinda happy to see that this company is on the receiving end of a giant "fuck you middlefinger". on the other hand though, this order was issued by Trump and his administration who is just as much of an authoritarian than the chinese government is and just like the chinese government, Trump has no issue whatsoever to the order police, who's purpose it is to protect & serve and uphold the law, to brutally attack peaceful protesters just so that Trump can cross a street and take a photo with a bible in his hand.
so him issuing this executive order, while at first giving me a sensation of elation of joy because fuck chinese censorship, also fills me with worry and dread... not because I particular like Tencent, far from it, Tencent can burn in hell for all i care, but because of TikTok and WeChat. now, I don't use TikTok and WeChat myself but there are many other people who use them as they are social media. they are also owned by a chinese company... which probably means that anyone who actually uses either of these services is being spied upon, even here in the west.
I mean, come on people... this is the chinese government we're talking about, you really trust these guys to keep their censoring within the borders on china? I don't and I wouldn't be surprised if users who post things like "freedom for Hong Kong" end up with their messages disappearing and their accounts being banned...
anyways...
one of the things about TikTok and WeChat is though, even with the very high likelihood of users being spied upon, both services have been used a lot by people within the US to voice their opinions, displeasures and disagreements not only with Trump himself but also the Trump administration.
considering that the next election is coming up rapidly and that Trump's popularity has been dropping dramatically (and justifiably so), I cannot help but shake the feeling that this ban is an attempt by Trump to enforce some censorship on his own. see, the thing is... despite all the jokes we like to make, Trump isn't exactly stupid. he knows that if he just bans TikTok and WeChat, everyone would accuse him of censorship. if he bans all chinese companies however, these accusations are a lot harder to prove...
so you can see why i have very mixed feelings about this... i both celebrate and loathe it at the same time, its weird...
anyways, for us gamers, this is likewise a pretty big fucking deal 'cause like i said at the start: Tencent owns Riot Games who are responsible for League of Legends. I don't play LoL myself but there's a lot of people that do, probably even some of you guys reading this. and like i said, Tencent has its fingers in many other companies as well
its very likely that this is something that will be challenged and fought out in court, we are likely to see lawsuits over this
but either way, the future has become very uncertain in many ways for us gamers. are many of the games continue business as usual? are they gonna change in some weird ways that none of us can foresee as of yet? or are some of them going to seize operation completely and simply stop existing?
I don't know guys... we'll have to wait and find out
source Arch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgz7bA1OjQ0
People give all of their information to facebook, their credit card companies, their loan companies, pinterest, etc.
Another is their strict stance against cross-platform, which they listed stupid and false reasons for being against it, like to protect their players and whatnot.
I honestly would've been supportive of Sony getting the deal since anything is better than Tencent but given how things are.. Yeaahh.. very hard to consider Sony a good candidate.
I agree with the stance with the no cross platform sorry if you arent but I am. But what are the stupid and false reasons?
PS4 gets Spider-Man exclusively for Marvels Avengers (already facing backlash) those are the two on the top of my head.
If Sony had DE, they might make updates launch on PS exclusively which would be bs considering Warframe is PC first.
I'm against it. I can understand not wanting people to have the game on their competition, but really? To protect your players? That's a bs excuse cause there hasn't been any harm done with crossplay. Also, it locks anyone who got another platform to continue or carry over their progress on another platform. It's just really stupid and inconsiderate to players in my opinion. We saw the backlash and now Sony is slowly seeing the light. I can understand now allowing crossplay in PVP, but there's no harm in it at a PVE environment.
Yongyea discusses the situation better than most people, so here's the link.
https://youtu.be/aFQEtB25MAI
https://youtu.be/y3FBOuE8rq4
Exclusivities are fine, cause it drives the point of getting the console, but locking a certain character away on a MULTI-PLATFORM GAME.. It's just really stupid & very anti-consumer. I have an Xbox & PC, even if I had a PS4, I wouldn't approve of this. Cause basically the other versions are a incomplete copy of the game. That's just not right man.
But I don't with having the Exclusives canceled when they are close to completion. Like I would have got an Xbox for Scalebound https://www.thegamer.com/cancelled-.....-knew-existed/ . Scalebound was close to be done then Microsoft canceled it after a delay. https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/9/1.....bound-canceled https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/comments/5n04bs/microsoft_confirms_xbox_one_exclusive_scalebound/
I'm still salty at Microsoft about Scalebound. So much potential with the game... I wanted to make my dracosona in the game since the dragon was gonna be completely customizable.. ;3;
Anything that kicks communists, fascists, authoritarian/totalitarian governments in the balls makes me happy.
There are plenty of other chat and video apps out there that aren't spying for foreign governments that enslave people, put people in concentration camps, torture, murder, and harvest the organs of dissenters and minorities like the communist Chinese government is.
If that means I lose access to a few games, then I am fine with that.
I also hope Trump comes for the "platform vs publisher" section 230 protections that censorship heavy companies like facebook and twitter and other social media use to manipulate and silence people's freedom of speech. If they want to do that then they should be treated as publishers and not as platforms.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...../#393433889698
Just know, you'll need to whitelist Forbes to be able to read it. But to summarize, the games themselves aren't going to get banned.
US alone is gonna be a HUGE blow to China; it's probably the biggest country after China itself; so imagine if say UK, France, Germany, etc joined. We need to starved the CCP of any external market; it'll probably increase prices everywhere and with the virus going it's no good; however right now with the whole floodings China's a termoil and if more stress is added perhaps the population as a whole will snap onto the government and have a country-sized revolt.
I don't exactly agree that this could be a power play by Trump to engage in some kind of domestic 'censorship" move, as it really wouldn't be beneficial to him to push for censorship.
But rather i see it as just as a means of ensuring Chinese spyware, propaganda, misinformation and information disruption can no longer happen through these specific companies.
Is it a big move that could have far reaching effects over Chinese owned and Controlled Media and Such? Aye, it very likely could. Could it lead to numerous Chinese Companies and products used by Americans being altered, or shut down? Quite possibly.
However, even in that instance, Americans (and the West in general) should be willing to keep a stiff upper lip about it, as a little inconvenience with choosing new media platforms and games is a small price to pay if it means Americans are no longer supporting a Communist Regime bent on oppression and conquer.
Will it be annoying if many games, media platforms and apps we enjoy are suddenly stripped away? Aye, a bit.
But would it be worth it to no longer support an evil regime genociding millions and infesting our countries from within?
Absolutely. ^.-.^
Just my thoughts. Cheers. ^.-.^
in any case, we have to wait and see how things turn out and develop. fortunately, I myself don't play League of Legends so if that was to disappear, well... it wouldn't be anything I would notice
it will be interesting to see how companies like Ubisoft and EPIC handle this situation though, as both companies have uncomfortably close ties to Tencent and thus, the oppressive chinese government