Grand Theft Protest: Hong Kongers and Chinese Gamers Battle Online

Grand Theft Protest: Hong Kongers and Chinese Gamers Battle Online

Grand Theft Auto's wildly popular online multiplayer game has become the latest place for Hong Kong pro-democracy supporters and Chinese nationalists to wage their ideological battles, which are now being opposed in the virtual world. The video and chatter of virtual skirmishes on both sides of the ideological divide in the last fortnight's message boards and social media platforms used by gamers are full of insults and discrimination.

GTA Online is an open-world game that allows dozens of players to explore and fight each other through the streets of a vast American fantasy city.
After a recent expansion pack was released earlier this month, gamers in Hong Kong noticed that they could now wear their avatars in their movement clothes, pushing for greater democratic freedom and police accountability.

They donated black clothes, gas masks and yellow helmets and went about throwing petrol bombs, trampling metro stations and attacking police - a virtual re-enforcement of protests that have entangled the financial hub.
His antics soon attracted the attention of gamers in mainland China, who later groomed their characters as cops and fought the Battle of Hong Kong.

In a video clip posted on Weibo platforms such as China's Twitter on Monday, gamers posted footage of the fight titled: "Compilation of Players Who Kill Cockroaches."

Cockroaches are a term regularly used by Hong Kong police and government supporters to describe protesters.
The video was viewed more than 175,000 times as of Tuesday afternoon.
"Our dignity cannot be trampled," a message on the video read. "As a Chinese player ... we must fight!"
But in a depiction of people censoring people in China, the creators of the video shouted some pro-democracy slogans written by Hong Kong players.
Semi-autonomous Hong Kong has been shaken for six months by increasingly violent pro-democracy protests.
He was initially allowed extradition to the mainland of the dictatorship by an autocratic effort, but ever since there has been a popular rebellion against Beijing's regime, fearing that the city is losing its unique independence.

China threw its weight behind the city's unpopular officials and dismissed huge rallies.
The demands of the protesters include police investigation, amnesty for over 6,000 people arrested and the right to elect the leader of Hong Kong.