"Certain Phrases, Including 'Free Hong Kong' and 'Tiananmen Square,' Were Not Allowed" for Marvel Gamers

From N.Y. Times (German Lopez):

Marvel Rivals is one of the biggest video games in the world. Since its launch in December, more than 40 million people have signed up to fight one another as comic book heroes like Iron Man and Wolverine. {With Marvel Rivals, Disney licensed its intellectual property for the game.}

But when players used the game's text chat to talk with teammates and opponents, they noticed something: Certain phrases, including "free Hong Kong" and "Tiananmen Square," were not allowed.

While Marvel Rivals is based on an iconic American franchise, it was developed by a Chinese company, NetEase Games. It has become the latest example of Chinese censorship creeping into media that Americans consume.

You can't type "free Tibet," "free Xinjiang," "Uyghur camps," "Taiwan is a country" or "1989" (the year of the Tiananmen Square massacre) in the chat. You can type "America is a dictatorship" but not "China is a dictatorship." Even memes aren't spared. "Winnie the Pooh" is banned, because people have compared China's leader, Xi Jinping, to the cartoon bear.

The restrictions are largely confined to China-related topics. You can type "free Palestine," "free Kashmir" and "free Crimea." …

Comments

[Dr. Ed 2]

What is needed is a steep tariff or tax -- call it a "free speech fee."

China is attempting to subvert us far worse than the Soviets ever tried in the 1950s, and we really need to act on this.

If we can have "anti-dumping" tariffs, why can't we have "anti-duping" tariffs?

[RedheadedPharoh]

As we've seen there are also several "no-no" phrases that will get you on the government domestic terrorist watch list in the USA too.
E.g.

"Trump"
"Christian"
"Bible"
"small government"
"freedom"
"family"
"vaccine injury"

This list was compiled from several FOIAd documents and leaked presentations.

[Drewski]

Turns out 100% of Americans have used one or more of those words and phrases. Probably not the most useful watch list.

[Reallynotbob]

I heard "Gulf of Mexico" will do the trick.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Major scandal breaking in that regard:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/25/fbi-looking-james-comeys-books-honeypot-operation-targeting-2016/

[VinniUSMC]

Every app/game published in China is the same.

[Brett Bellmore]

Hey, what do you expect when you're trading with a genocidal totalitarian state?

[Ed Grinberg]

https://reason.com/2010/05/24/thomas-l-friedman-wants-us-to/

"Liberals" are scary...

[Dr. Ed 2]

WHY are we trading with a genocidal totalitarian state?!?

[y81]

And at American universities, you can say whatever you want about the United States, but you can't say, "China kinda sus." The fact is, there's almost certainly more freedom of speech at Marvel Rivals than on American campuses, although the Conspirators generally prefer to direct their criticism away from their colleagues.