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  • SpookyVanguard64 [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    They didn't even get banned lol, they just got suspended for 3 weeks. From what I understand, they were looking at their YouTube statistics during their livestreams and brought up Taiwan (which is apparently referred to as an independent country on Japanese YouTube, as opposed to a territory/region on English YouTube) on streams that were being simulcast on Bilibili in China. From what I understand the vtubers in question weren't being malicious, but some people in China saw this as attacking the one China policy, causing the streamers in question to get harassed by Chinese nationalist, as well as get in trouble with Bilibili. In response Hololive put out a statement saying that they would be suspended for 3 weeks, presumably to let the harassment from nationalists die down and to sort out any issues that may have been caused, after which they will resume their normal activities. Sounds like a shitty/dumb situation being responded to in a fairly reasonable way right?

    Of course since we're talking about weebs, they took the suspensions to mean that Hololive might as well be taking orders directly from Xi himself and immediately started going on an anti-China crusade. The Hololive subreddit became indistinguishable from every other anti-China subreddit, complete with Winnie the pooh memes, calling mainland China "West Taiwan", and pretending that Taiwan has always been a perfect little angel that was definitely not an authoritarian dictatorship until 1987, and has definitely not committed massacres or imprisoned and executed thousands of political dissidents. Worst of all is that (allegedly) at least one of the vtubers for Hololive's China branch started getting harassment over this from anti-China people on twitter, and I saw a lot of people advocating for Hololive to cease operating in China altogether, essentially saying that the 6 or so vtubers in the China branch, as well as the various support staff that help them, should all lose their jobs just cause weebs are upset that 2 of their favorite vtubers aren't going to be streaming for the next 3 weeks.

      • SpookyVanguard64 [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Thanks for the extra info

        Np, though with the exception of people advocating ditching Hololive China, take everything I wrote with a grain of salt. I'm fairly confident most of what I know is true, but at the same time the information is being filtered through people who aren't being very calm on top of a lot of information having to be translated between 3 different languages and interpreted by 3 different cultures who clearly don't always see eye to eye, so there's a good chance that some details have been skewed or left out. On top of that, the actual streams that caused the problems were archived and made private before anyone could clip them, so almost no one seems to actually know what precisely was said or done by the vtubers to cause this situation.

        it’s fascinating to see the same sort of overblown hysteria gamers had towards Jack Thompson or Anita Sarkeesian being directed towards geopolitics

        That's what people get for developing their understanding of the world purely off of memes and right wing propaganda I suppose. Seriously though, people were spamming braindead Taiwanese nationalist memes and propaganda on the official Hololive subreddit which is run directly by Hololive. Hololive is presumably trying to smooth over issues with Chinese fans and the Chinese corporations they work with, so having Hololive's official subreddit overrun with anti-China weebs is only going to hurt them in that regard (and by extension, the vtubers these weebs claim to care about), though Hololive's mods seem to have finally gotten their act together and started purging the flood of anti-China posts. Also, it's just sad seeing people try to own a super power through the same 3 stale memes every time a situation like this happens. Like bitch, shut the fuck up, Whiney the Pooh was never banned in China and Xi Jinping doesn't give a shit, go away and actually read a book or at least come up with a better joke ffs.

        • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
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          4 years ago

          Also, it’s just sad seeing people try to own a super power through the same 3 stale memes every time a situation like this happens.

          It's basically just the same Western slacktivist mindset that was behind Kony2012. "Guys, by posting and consuming we can totally nab this child abusing warlord!!!!"

          In the mix are also embarrassing "THEY TARGETED GAMERS. GAMERS" type delusions of grandeur, Western chauvinism and over a hundred years of ingrained anti-communist fearmongering

    • StoneAze [none/use name]
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      4 years ago

      Yeah, it honestly sucks. The r/hololive sub was a pretty alright and nice sub tbh, but this Chinese controversy has made the sub insufferable recently with some of the dumbest geopolitical analysis from weebs yet. At the same time, the vtubers should've never gotten suspended for such a minor thing, at least not for 3 weeks, and the Chinese nationalist obviously overreacted to it. And yeah, there's also Hololive China to take into consideration, they shouldn't be in the crossfire of this, and the people saying to get rid of Hololive China entirely, in turn hurting the Chinese vtubers, are reactionary af.

      Seriously sucks, because a lot of people were enjoying the vtuber memes that came from Bilibili too. Hopefully it doesn't create a longterm divide between the fans.

        • StoneAze [none/use name]
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          4 years ago

          You would think, right? Another Hololive vtuber, Aloe, accidentally leaked her personal twitter and got doxxed a few weeks ago and Cover gave her a suspension for 3 weeks. She actually ended up quitting Hololive all together after 3 weeks because she was so stressed about the whole situation. Hololive reddit fans were angry back then too when that happened, but it seems like they're MUCH MORE angrier now. Because this time, it's about China, which gives the reddit weebs an excuse to be Sinophobic and a target which pretty much engulfed the entire subreddit.

          Though, we shouldn't excuse some of the Chinese nationalist fans either, just like r/hololive, they were also toxic in this situation as well. it's just a shitshow all around. Really, just a weird niche weeb conflict in the corner of the internet.

      • crispyhexagon [none/use name]
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        4 years ago

        even if you only counted jewish holocaust victims...

        did china have a policy at some point that set up a system wherein they would go out of their way to hunt down and murder children for being part of a minority group? let alone one hitting a sixty million death toll?

        fuckin nazi fucks doing a sinophobia because its the only culturally acceptable way to splurt their apologia

  • emizeko [they/them]
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    4 years ago

    look sweaty, antibiotics just aren't profitable so when deadly infections become widespread that won't be capitalism's fault sorry

  • Indifference_Engine [comrade/them, any]
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    4 years ago

    Honest question, why exactly does China have such a bug up it's ass about Taiwan being acknowledged, even by cartoon characters who play video games?

    • SpookyVanguard64 [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      There are a variety of reasons, but one of the main ones is on the issue of territorial legitimacy. Imagine if during the U.S. Civil war, the Union conquered all of the South except Texas for some reason. Then instead of trying to reconquer Texas, they just give up and say "oh well, I guess ya'll can be your own country" and just let Texas succeed from the Union. At that point the United States have basically announced to their entire country that they will legitimize separatist movements, which not only will create new separatist movements and strengthen existing ones, but it would also undermine the entire endeavor of retaking the rest of the south in the first place by basically telling them that they could've gotten away with succession.

      So when it comes to Taiwan, the island was a territory of China starting in the Qing dynasty, and is currently being run by the government that lost to the communists during the Chinese Civil war, but also with the added dimension of it being protected by a foreign power in the form of the US. So given the situation, China acknowledging Taiwan as an independent entity would not only give a lot of legitimacy to other separatist movements in China (Tibet, Xinjiang, etc.), it could also be seen as a green light for various imperialist or colonialist powers to come in and potentially try and seize Chinese territory for themselves without much backlash from the Chinese government.

      TL;DR: Any country that acknowledges a separatist movement, especially without losing a war to said movement first (ex: how USA gained independence from British), immediately throws ownership of the rest of its territory into question and makes the government look weak.

    • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      I'm pretty sure this was an independent company that did the censoring. As for Taiwan, it's a US military base. You don't want your enemy to have a close base.

    • Parzivus [any]
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      4 years ago

      Crazy nationalists, every country has em.
      Also, the Chinese government didn't say anything here. It's a capitalist management agency being scared they might lose customers and slapping a token punishment down.

    • dinklesplein [any, he/him]
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      4 years ago

      why does south korea have such a bug up its ass about the dprk being acknowledged? legitimising taiwanese separatism hinders chinese reunification., which is one of the cpcs long term goals, notwithstanding the fact that the ccp had nothing to do with this anyway.

    • glk [none/use name]
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      4 years ago

      The Imperialist countries carved up China in spheres of influence during the so called 'century of humiliation.' An independent Taiwan aligned with the west is seen as a holdover of that era. This also true for Tibet except that place is probably seen as more important as the mythic long march passed through there. The Indian-China war in the sixties was over similar bullshit as the previous border was established by the British empire and therefore considered illegitimate.

    • ARVSPEX [none/use name]
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      4 years ago

      Why do people in the PRC have such a big stick up their arses about the acknowledgement of an external government calling itself the legitimate ruler over the mainland and the continued existence of which has only been possible due to its being backed by a foreign power that wants to fuck with Beijing?

      I have seen a lot of people calling the Chinese citizens who are not happy about t****n being considered its own entity by foreigners, not just surrounding this event but in general, as being irrationally nationalist and 'brainwashed', but I cannot think of any self-respecting people that would be happy about such a thing, specially considering the vast background to the matter.

        • mrbigcheese [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          I feel like you cant really ignore Taiwan's ties and pacts to the us and us military presence in the region and support for Taiwan in arm sales and military technology, as well as the renewed calls for us military presence in Taiwan.

            • ARVSPEX [none/use name]
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              4 years ago

              Taiwan is currently an independent nation

              No, it is not and the only reason it can be as brazen as it is in that regard is because they have daddy us standing behind them.

              Are you going to support any and all separatist movements aimed at weakening nations that run contrary to the west's interests because the purity of your ideals demand it? Should have the PRC not taken action and just let HK fall into the hands of the western-backed terrorist because idk bro that sounds authoritarian?

              Like, someone said somewhere in this thread “well can you really criticize the US government on Twitch?” And the answer is probably not meaningfully and that’s fucking shitty.

              Unless we are looking at different thread, the person in question said 'advocate for overthrowing' not criticising.

                • mrbigcheese [he/him]
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                  4 years ago

                  Taiwan has a close and necessary economic relationship with China which is its primary export and import source. over 40% of its exports go and 20% of its imports come from China. i agree the topic is more complicated than made out to be but theres certainly valid concerns China has on this

                • ARVSPEX [none/use name]
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                  4 years ago

                  The mainland is absolutely key for their day-to-day functioning, if at least in the form of trading. More importantly, why not try asking that the other way around? Is t´´´´n doing that for the rest of the mainland? Then why call itself the legitimate government of China? Because that is what they do and is what allowing t****n to be recognized as a legitimate government plays into.

                  Clearly there is someone in the right in this scenario, and is not the ones currently on an island off the coast with no substantiated territorial claims.

                  And, again, the issue over the technically still ongoing civil war would have been put to rest long ago had it not been due to the y*nks' presence; it is abhorrent that the status-quo of a country's internal affairs has been set due to an external power's influence. It is a matter for concern precisely because it is a tangible risk to to the PRC's sovereignty and stability.

        • EthicalHumanMeat [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          All nationalism is brainwashing and is bad

          Black nationalism? Palestinian nationalism? Cuban and Vietnamese nationalism?

        • ARVSPEX [none/use name]
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          4 years ago

          And we most definitively are a really long way from seeing such an endpoint being realistically achieved by anyone, so I do not see how that is important right now.

          But sure, they should ignore geopolitical reality and be happy with a y´nk puppet right on their doorstep. Though war is incredibly unlikely to happen, in case it did you can be damn sure one of the first things you would see would be the west using t****n as a bludgeoning club and pulling a stunt like acknowledging them as the legitimate rulers over the mainland.

    • LoMeinTenants [any]
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      4 years ago

      Because $$$

      ...which they'll rain down and redistribute evenly among all the peoples of the world, and not like, to their aristocratic friends in the top echelons of society

      Apparently the Easter bunny is real too

  • ComradeMikey [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    as much as I try to support china i feel icky about stuff like this. can someone offer me a good faith reason why we should root for censorship? I know alot of mainstream media is against china but idk.

    im a nondenominational leftist im not anti ML or even anti china for the record

    • emizeko [they/them]
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      4 years ago

      can you advocate for overthrowing the US government on twitch?

          • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
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            4 years ago

            They’re extremely vague with what Coco, a Vtuber, actually got banned for in the past saying that she got banned in the past for “discussing Muslim related contents” and that “she kept using jokes on drugs, which is an extremely dangerous topic in many places in the world.” Both of these reasons are so vague and I only have faint ideas about what they could be referring to here. The Muslim content could be related to Xinjiang but a VTuber talking about that seems unlikely.

            Doesn't she react to memes... from Reddit? Something like this was bound to happen. I assume there were Memri TV edits, haram/halal jokes and so on. She also seems to be American with a Western sense of humour which also means jokes about drugs and being high. It's an interesting example of cultural differences, as even in Japan drugs are still quite a taboo. Also holy shit the comments on that post you linked are awful, Western nerds are so ready for a pointless Cold War.

          • SpookyVanguard64 [he/him]
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            4 years ago

            I kind of feel sorry for Hololive Moments. I disagree with their assertion that Coco should be punished further, since this all seems to be stemming out of a misunderstanding of the intentions of her actions in bringing up her Taiwan stats. At the same time, they tried to give their perspective on the situation as a group with connections to the Chinese Hololive community and brought up what I thought was some interesting context to the situation, as well thoughts and concerns that seem valid (or at least are worth discussing), but of course since they took the side of the Chinese audience no one is even trying to listen to them, and everyone's just trying to dogpile them with anti-China hate.

            Also, in terms of reasons to be mad at Hololive, I think they should've had the foresight to realize that the cultural difference between Coco, who is from the US (the South specifically), and her Chinese audience would likely present a problem at some point. Obviously Americans have much different attitudes towards things like drugs than people in China, but also in terms of highly contentious issues like Taiwan, most Americans probably don't even know enough about the situation to even realize that they could be causing problems by bringing it up. Whether this means that Hololive should invest more into sensitivity training on issues like this so that their streamers know how to deal with these situations, or that they should just limit certain vtubers from broadcasting in China, idk. Coco's Chinese audience was apparently only 0.7% of her total audience, so it may not even be worth the trouble of sharing her content through official means with China.

      • ComradeMikey [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Thats a fair way to frame it thanks I think I can see the comparison

        • CommieGirl69 [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          also please understand that every country in the 3rd world is at war with the US (declared or otherwise), and propaganda is part of it

          i'm brazilian and the overwhelming presence of think tanks (especially on the internet) played some part in fueling an already existing public discontent until all of it culminated in a coup in 2016

          neocolonialism isn't just about directly overthrowing governments (though they will go there if needed), it also involves cultural and ideological domination and destabilization, and it works really well (which is why it's a great thing that china tries to keep all western social media at bay)

          and it's a constant threat too, you can be 100% sure that every time a group criticizes the CPC on chinese social media, and it gains any significant traction, there will a LOT of astroturfing trying to make that discontent into something destabilizing

          censorship is bad, but if i lived under a communist government i would have to grudgingly support it as a necessary evil

          • ComradeMikey [he/him]
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            4 years ago

            Yeah it makes sense i guess. I just dont think banning random streamer/media is a very good look. I can understand wanting to protect against propaganda, and I totally get some of the open calls for coup and stuff but the way its handled feels clumsy and very broad sweeping.

            Its not like im pretending they are 1984 or something, ill critically support any left voice out there at this point excluding vaush i guess

  • lvysaur [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    COVID was probably a US bioweapon. Trump had an emergency hospital visit in November, talked in private about how deadly the virus was (February) and then didn't wear a mask until July

    Put 2 and 2 together and he probably knew he was immune