@Joey
I don’t have much to go by myself, the screenshots are really all I got. They do mention EQD staffers talking about it, though, so there’s gotta be some truth in this.
Point 1 and Point 5 make sense, making it highly unlikely, I give you that. Though, such a sponsorship or partnership probably exists already.
There have been a lot of developments this year that exactly fit to such a partnership with Hasbro, namely, two news related to the movie having gotten taken down by Hasbro’s request and because Sethisto complied, the fairly recent (and unexpected) announcement that EQD won’t do Saucy Drawfriends for Pony Appreciation Days anymore (granted, Sethisto jumps back and forth on the question of saucy stuff or not and seems to be pretty indecisive about it, it happened before that he randomly changed his mind about it, but the time of occurence is still suspicious) and, just a short time ago, an explicit post only serving to tell EQD visitors they shouldn’t go and look for a recent, new show bible leak (even though the information in that is heavily outdated, this seems like something Hasbro would want to avoid if they can).
None of these things ever happened before 2017. Especially the last one is strange….. Why would EQD care so much to warn about a show bible leak? It got leaked years prior, I think EQD even reported about that and basically encouraged to download it since it wasn’t doing any harm anyway and was just a neat piece of old behind the scenes material that fans wouldn’t be able to get otherwise, and EQD has no obligation to keep fans from seeking it out, morally or otherwise.
In fact, this is a very strange behavior for a
fansite.
Except, if Hasbro
does have a partnership with EQD, whatever benefis this holds for Sethisto, then Hasbro could definitely demand such things in return.
And this still raises the concern of Hasbro influencing the site and forming it according to its will, especially if Sethisto signed a contract that allows Hasbro a certain degree of control to decide what he does with the site and what he doesn’t do with it.
There is very real potential and danger for censorship here, in which case, EQD wouldn’t be an independent news source anymore.
And whatever the deal with Hasbro entails exactly, this could get worse in the future if Hasbro offers more money or benefits to Sethisto in exchange for more control over the site. Once that Pandora’s Box has been opened, it won’t close anymore.
It doesn’t have to be a complete buyout, a partnership like this could already have very negative and detrimental effects on EQD and the fandom.