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It’s a new year so it is nice that the first ridiculous story of 2025 has arrived so early. So let’s first get the crux of the matter out of the way and then get into the reasons for the issue. The big Marvel Rivals news of the day – players can’t mention the iconic Disney character Winnie the Pooh in the chat. It’s an outrage. Censorship gone mad the internet cries. But, ignoring why you ever would need to in the first instance, why is referring to AA Milne’s loveable bear Pooh outlawed in the first place? Well for that we need to do some international digging.
Why can’t you say Winnie the Pooh in Marvel Rivals?
There is an issue with Winnie the Pooh and the Chinese state that dates back much further than Marvel Rivals. The first thing to understand is that Marvel Rivals developer NetEase works out of China so is behest to certain Chinese laws.
Since 2017 Chinese games have had to censor mention of Winnie the Pooh since memes appeared comparing Pooh Bear with Chinese President XI Jingping. It really is as simple, and as ridiculous as that.
Marvel Rivals Bans Winnie The Pooh From Game Chat, Here’s Why | The honey-loving childrens' character cannot be mentioned in the Marvel Rivals chat.
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Pooh himself isn’t banned and still appears in other mediums, but certain books and games have been hit by the ban, presumably because of some extra meme potential that is beyond our comprehension.
Now however, we are in a situation where whenever any game emerges from China, one of the first things people do is check to see whether you can get away with any pooh-related chat (stop it) in the game, thus perpetuating the issue instead of letting some eight-year-old memes simply die away.
As for NetEase though, it simply didn’t have a choice but to comply with regulations and block the words from its chat or account creator.
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