NBA Top Shot | User account named "FreeHongKong" frozen without reason, no response from official

An NBA Top Shot account named FreeHongKong has been frozen during the KYC verification process. It is currently unclear whether the account was frozen due to political reasons. The developer, Dapper Labs, has not responded to this issue.

FreeHongKong

User "FreeHongKong" detailed the process to the media outlet "CoinDesk", stating that on December 30th last year, he underwent KYC on NBA Top Shot with his passport, planning to withdraw funds after selling NFT cards.

However, his account was immediately frozen, and the platform's email response to him included reasons such as "providing false or misleading information during the verification process" and "violating NBA Top Shot / Dapper Labs terms of service," stating:

Due to the above reasons, we have decided to terminate your account and permanently suspend your access to it.

Player cards have been sold

Subsequently, FreeHongKong stated that his identity verification had been approved, but his account remained frozen, and the transactions made before the freeze were not revoked, with the player cards already successfully sold.

CoinDesk claimed to have contacted a spokesperson from the platform developer Dapper Labs, but received no response.

NBA itself has also had similar controversial incidents, such as in 2019 when Houston Rockets' general manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of the Hong Kong protests. Morey was later forced to delete the tweet and apologize under pressure from the NBA official, but the Chinese authorities remained dissatisfied, leading to a year-long suspension of NBA broadcasts.

1/ I did not intend my tweet to cause any offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China. I was merely voicing one thought, based on one interpretation, of one complicated event. I have had a lot of opportunity since that tweet to hear and consider other perspectives.

— Daryl MorΞy 🗽🏀 (@dmorey) October 7, 2019

The act of freezing users' accounts by NBA Top Shot under unclear circumstances is seen as undermining the digital ownership advocated by NFTs, with the public's decentralized hopes resting on blockchain technology, and now seemingly relying on Web3 once again.

The community's response to Web3 is also polarized, with some believing that names like FreeHongKong could cause trouble for users in Web2 rather than Web3, while others mock that Web3 is great until users' freedom of speech is restricted.