A new report on gaming shows that the Xbox platform is getting new hate speech and profanity guidelines from Microsoft, including a strike system preventing players from accessing their own games if they break the rules.
Online gaming used to be a safe space for young people to let off steam, but today players have to tread carefully to avoid being banned from the system they’ve invested hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars into.
A gamer will now earn a strike if they break the Xbox community guidelines. The duration and amount of strikes depend on how serious the infraction was. A player’s access to Xbox Live features like voice chat and multiplayer will be terminated for an entire year if they accumulate eight strikes.
Users will start with a clean slate since the strike program has officially begun.
According to Dave McCarthy, corporate vice president of Xbox player services, only around 1% of the Xbox user community gets any form of enforcement action, and only about a third of that 1% goes on to receive subsequent enforcement actions.
McCarthy claimed that players were confused about why certain violations resulted in one-day penalties and others in one-week or one-month bans since no uniform program existed.
According to the Microsoft website, they assert that they understand the significance of their role in promoting security and decorum in hosted services for customers.
To report what you believe to be hate speech on Microsoft-hosted consumer services, such as posts advocating violence or inciting hatred based on
age, disability, race, religion, Gender “identity,” or Sexual orientation.
Microsoft may decide not to take any action after considering an allegation of hate speech since not all objectionable information constitutes hate speech.
They ask that you use official channels for court orders and other formal legal processes requiring Microsoft to eliminate content from its online services.
