香港民主派と親中派、人気ゲーム「ＧＴＡオンライン」で衝突　思想戦に発展

【香港ＡＦＰ＝時事】香港で抗議デモの混乱が続く中、人気オンラインゲーム「グランド・セフト・オート・オンライン（GTA　Online）」が香港民主派と親中派による思想戦の舞台となっている──抗議活動がバーチャルの世界にまで飛び火した格好だ。（写真は資料写真）
　ゲーマーたちが利用する掲示板やソーシャルメディアはこのところ、仮想空間で繰り広げられた戦いに関する動画やチャットで埋め尽くされており、民主派・親中派の間で侮辱と非難の応酬となっている。
　ＧＴＡオンラインは米国の架空の街を舞台に戦闘を繰り広げるオンラインゲーム。香港のゲーマーらは今月リリースされた拡張パックによって黒い服、ガスマスク、黄色いヘルメットという民主派デモ隊のような装いをアバターにさせ、火炎瓶を投げる、地下鉄駅を破壊する、警察を襲うといった実際の抗議行動を再現するようなプレーができることに気付き、実行に移した。
　そうした香港のゲーマーたちの動きに中国本土のゲーマーたちはすぐに注目し、自分のアバターに警官の格好をさせ、香港のゲーマーたちと戦い始めた。
　２３日には中国版ツイッター「微博」に、「ゴキブリを大虐殺するプレーヤー集団」というタイトルの動画が投稿された。香港の警察や政府を支持する人は、抗議デモの参加者を言い表す際にゴキブリという言葉をよく使う。
　動画には「われわれの威厳を踏みにじることはできない」「中国のプレーヤーとして戦わなければいけない！」といったコメントが寄せられており、２４日午後までに視聴回数は７万５０００回に上っている。
　ただ、中国でよくある検閲の実例を示すように、動画作成者らは香港のプレーヤーが書き込んだ民主派のスローガンにはぼかしなどを入れ、読めない状態にしていた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/12/27-08:58）

Grand Theft Auto's wildly popular online multiplayer game has become the latest venue for Hong Kong pro-democracy supporters and Chinese nationalists to wage their ideological battles, with protests now breaking out in the virtual world.
Over the last fortnight message boards and social media platforms used by gamers have filled with videos and chatter of the virtual clashes as well insults and recriminations on both sides of the ideological divide.
GTA Online is an open world game that allows dozens of players to explore and fight each other through the streets of a sprawling, fictional American city.
After a recent expansion pack was released earlier this month, gamers in Hong Kong noticed they could now dress their avatars in the clothing of their movement, which is pushing for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability.
They donned black clothes, gas masks and yellow helmets and went about throwing petrol bombs, trashing subway stations and attacking police -- a virtual re-enactment of the protests that have upended the financial hub.
Their antics soon caught the attention of gamers in mainland China, who subsequently dressed their characters up as police and battled the Hong Kongers.
In a video clip posted on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform on Monday, gamers posted footage of the fight titled: Compilation of players slaughtering cockroaches.
Cockroach is a term routinely used by Hong Kong's police and government supporters to describe protesters.
The video had more than 175,000 views by Tuesday afternoon.
Our dignity can't be trampled, one message on the video read. As a Chinese player... we must fight!
But in an illustration of the censorship people in China face, the creators of the video blurred out some of the pro-democracy slogans written by Hong Kong players.
Semi-autonomous Hong Kong has been shaken for six months by increasingly violent pro-democracy protests.
They were initially sparked by a now-abandoned attempt to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland but have since morphed into a popular revolt against Beijing's rule, with spiralling fears that the city is losing some of its unique liberties.
China has thrown its weight behind the city's unpopular authorities and dismissed the huge rallies.
Among the demands being made by protesters is an inquiry into the police, an amnesty for the more than 6,000 people arrested and the right to elect Hong Kong's leader.