Sony wants its American PlayStation users to know that it supports social justice and Black Lives Matter. The company also has a message for its Hong Kong users: Don’t badmouth the Chinese Communist Party.
Sony is the latest company to flaunt its social justice credentials in the United States while doing all it can to appease the Chinese government in pursuit of the almighty dollar. The Japanese company released new terms of service for Hong Kong PlayStation users, saying they can’t use their accounts to share information that threatens Chinese “unification” or “damages the honour and interests” of the country. This comes shortly after Sony released a Black Lives Matter theme for free on the PlayStation Store ahead of its PlayStation 5 release. The company postponed an event touting the new console in June in “solidarity” with the movement.
Sony updated terms of service for PlayStation accounts in Hong Kong, likely in response to the new laws there.
Nothing anti CCP can be said.
If enough people outside of China say bad things about the CPP, will Sony impose this worldwide? pic.twitter.com/yKFh2fjdhq
— Grummz (@Grummz) October 21, 2020
Sony has been trying to play ball with China, likely in the hopes of speeding up PlayStation releases in the country. Gaming consoles take longer to release in China due to the government’s strict approval process, leading many in the country to turn to the gray market to acquire them more quickly. Sony’s PlayStation 5 will be launching worldwide in November, but not in China.
Sony has other Chinese interests aside from its consoles. The company recently applied for U.S. approval to continue supplying products to Huawei, the beleaguered Chinese telecommunications company that serves as an arm of the Chinese government. Sony counts Huawei among its top customers for smartphone image sensors. Sony Pictures is also one of the many film studios that chase access to the Chinese film market.
It’s a familiar model, followed by various Hollywood film studios, the NBA, and others trying to earn money in both the U.S. and China. The perverted incentive model requires them to condemn the U.S. as an irredeemably racist and hateful country while brushing aside China’s concentration camps and its subjugation of Hong Kong.
Sony doesn’t actually care about the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s a corporation looking to exploit the dominant narrative in the U.S. entertainment industry and the establishment media for good publicity to try and boost sales. It’s the same game plan applied to China, where the company tries to woo the Chinese government for favorable access by barring any criticism of its tyrannical regime.
Consumers should stop praising companies for taking domestic political stances while ignoring or covering for human rights atrocities around the world. Even if you support the political positions that a company is taking, it is hijacking them for profit while tying the movement you support to its hypocrisy. If we are supposed to hold companies responsible for their political decisions, maybe we can start at their placation of the Chinese government.
