Recently released poll data shows that Blizzard employees supported the company’s decision to punish Hearthstone player Blitzchung. The data also suggests that employees do not believe in having a free speech policy when it comes to controversial topics in China.
The two-question survey was conducted by the development team of Blind, which is an anonymous messaging app used by employees of technology companies. As reported by Wagner James Au on his New World Notes, Blind asked two different questions regarding Blizzard’s recent conduct regarding Hearthstone player Blitzchung and their relationship with China.
Au notes that 500 Blizzard employees out of around 4,700 total employees use the messaging app. However, only between 50 and 70 Blizzard employees actually responded to the questions. Employees from other technology companies like Google, Riot Games, Twitch, and Amazon also responded to the two-question survey.
The first question asked was, “Should Blizzard reverse its banning of the Hearthstone player?”
As you can see in the results below. Only 35.71% of Blizzard employees responded “Yes.” 64.9% of Blizzard employees responded “No.”
Riot Games employees were split down the line with half of them answering “Yes” and the other half answering “No.”
Twitch employees saw 77.78% answer “Yes” with only 22.22% answer “No.” Twitch’s parent company Amazon saw 84.74% answer “Yes” with only 15.26% answering “No.”
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The second question asked, “Do you think Blizzard should have a strong free speech policy for players regarding Hong Kong and other controversial topics in China (Tibet, Tiananmen, Taiwan) — even if it hurts Blizzard financially by a loss of Chinese revenue?”
This question saw 19 less Blizzard employees answer, but the results were similar. 31.37% of Blizzard employees answered “Yes” while 68.63% answered “No.”
Once again Riot Games was split down the line with half answering “Yes” and the other half answering “No.”
In a shift from the first question, 85.71% of Twitch employees answered “Yes” with only 14.29% answering “No.” Those percentages would be slightly higher than their parent company Amazon which saw 82.78% answer “Yes” and 17.22% answer “No.”
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Blind’s co-founder Kyum Kim explains the polls it runs are anonymous, “Blind allows employees at companies to share their opinion anonymously, which means they can share their honest opinions without fear of judgment.”
What do you make of these results? Are the results of the survey a surprise to anyone? Let me know your thoughts on the survey results in the comments section!