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Hearthstone fans protest Blizzard's suspension of grandmaster over Hong Kong democracy support
Blizzard Entertainment has suspended and removed the winnings of Chung Ng Wai, known as Blitzchung, a grandmaster in competitive digital collectible card game Hearthstone, after he spoke out in support of Hong Kong's ongoing pro-democracy protest movement (WIRED). In a live-streamed interview following his victory in the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament in Taipei, Chung, wearing a mask of a kind banned in Hong Kong, said: “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.”
Blizzard says it's taken action against him because its competition rules ban anything that “offends a portion or group of the public.” But many players and games industry professionals have criticised the company, deleting their accounts and questioning the influence of Chinese tech giant Tencent, which holds a 4.9 per cent stake in Activision Blizzard, as well as Blizzard's desire to retain access to lucrative Chinese markets at all costs.
Twitter used two-factor authentication phone numbers to target adverts
Twitter has admitted that it “inadvertently” used phone numbers and email addresses provided for two-factor authentication to “target ads to customers based on the advertiser's own marketing lists” (TechCrunch). Twitter says the issue was corrected on September 17 but the fact that it used data provided only for security in its advertising mirrors last year's Facebook data use controversy and may be similarly dubious under EU data protection law.
Antarctica's Emperor penguins are under threat of habitat loss
A new study by the British Antarctic Survey warns that measures must be put in place to protect Emperor penguins from the effects of unprecedented rates of warming on their Antarctic habitat (BBC News). The penguins raise their offspring on sea ice, which is at particular risk of loss, prompting the scientists to recommend that their 'Near Threatened' status be shifted to 'Vulnerable' to reflect this heightened risk.
How to stop Brexit from creating a Windrush on steroids
The future of around 3.6 million EU nationals in a post-Brexit Britain hinges on the upkeep of a vast government database (WIRED). This database will determine who has been granted settled status, and therefore has the right to stay in Britain indefinitely. If the database says no, you risk being deported. It must be a really watertight database then, right?
The PlayStation 5 is coming in time for Holiday 2020
Sony has confirmed that its next generation console will indeed be called the PlayStation 5 and that it'll be in the shops in time for the 2020's winter holidays (WIRED). It'll feature hardware ray-tracing support, SSD storage and a controller with far more finely tuned haptic feedback than previous editions, as well as "adaptive triggers" that will be able to add a sense of resistance to some in-game actions.
The vaping backlash is on
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
