If you don't know how China's "red lines" and the 227 Incident (i.e. the banning of Ao3 in China) are relevant to what we're dealing with regarding Valko's cancellation, then I sincerely urge you to look into them. The fact that Infold is a Chinese company matters. CN internet culture does not operate how most global players are accustomed to, and understanding this context is so important in navigating through this fight.
The situation is so much more complex than those of us in the West may realize. It has always been about so much more than Valko.
Prior to Valko's cancellation, I had no idea how "baked-in" parasocialism, aggression, anti-fan behavior, and the weaponization of state power is within CN fandoms in general. I also had no understanding of how "water armies", not always tied to direct competitors but bad-faith actors nonetheless, are used to fuel chaos and cause destruction.
It is unmistakable at this point that there are CN antis who are intent on shutting down LaDS's global servers at minimum. They are not quiet about it. And now that regulations specifically targeted at water armies, their coordinated online behavior and fake engagement, have gone into effect on Chinese social media, they are moving onto this platform.
Again, this is all very obvious. Just look at how botted activity spikes at timed intervals while most Americans are asleep or just starting their day.
On top of that, consider how the accounts pushing the inflammatory tags are also spreading the unfounded allegations surrounding minors, brothels, supposedly "misogynistic" content in the multi, and sending mass false reports of it being phonographic in nature. Painting the company as outright "anti-women" and "anti-China" when that is not true. It is the same toxic behavior and rhetoric that lead to Valko's cancellation in the first place.
None of this is organic. It is textbook CN water army / toxic fandom behavior. The anger and hurt that real players feel over the situation is understandable and valid, but it is being weaponized, in typical anti-fan behavior fashion, to bring down the company. Not bring back Valko. They are manipulating the pro-Valko movement in the same way that they manipulated the CDG. The tactics are exactly the same.
Regardless of whether or not you think another competitor is at play, a portion of CN antis have always wanted to shut down the global servers. Again, this is not new. For Valko's sake, we need to keep this at the forefront of our minds and assess things accordingly. Err on the side of caution. Fighting this kind of thing is not what we are used to.
And please, for all the reasons mentioned above, stop using those awful tags!
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Once again sharing this, because, well...some of you clearly haven't done your homework yet. You're welcome.
arxiv.org/pdf/1111.4297
(They've been studying this stuff for well over a decade. As the internet evolves, so does the problem. And now we have AI...)
See Also:
Fan Conflicts and State Power in China: Internalized Heteronormativity, Censorship Sensibilities, and Fandom Police by Erika Ningxin Wang & Liang Ge
doi.org/10.1080/10357823.202…
And Also:
Let's Report Our Rivals: How Chinese Fandoms Game Content Moderation to Restrain Opposing Voices by Andy Zhao
doi.org/10.51685/jqd.2023.00…
Since I'm in the mood, you will, and I even took the time to add color coded text and arrows to show which screenshots pertain as evidence for each of my claims. And, like I said, plenty of people have gone much more in-depth, so I will add a few informative posts under this too.