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LaughingSharko's avatar
LaughingSharko
3 years ago

Re: Banned for 7 days for "Hateful Conduct" -- Inappropriate/Offensive Display Name

@ren0000144965050First, I'm not sure what version of the TOS you're quoting. The latest one I found says this in section 8:

"When practical, EA will notify you of the termination. You may lose your username and persona as a result of an EA Account termination...

Instead of termination and prior to any termination, EA may issue you a warning, suspend or alter your access to a particular EA Service or your EA Account, remove or revoke Entitlements at an EA Account or device level, remove or delete any Content which is in violation with this Agreement, or ban your device or machine from accessing specific EA Services."

Notice the words "when practical" and "may." In this situation, it appears that EA decided it's not practical to provide a warning before a temporary suspension.


Second, you're supposed to read the TOS before installing the game.

This agreement clearly says that you agree not to:
"Harass, threaten, bully, embarrass, spam or do anything else to another player or any EA employee or representative that is unwanted, such as repeatedly sending unwanted messages or making personal attacks or statements about race, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, etc. Hate speech is not tolerated."
"Publish, post, upload or distribute any content, such as a topic, name, screen name, avatar, persona, or other material or information, that EA (acting reasonably and objectively) determines is inappropriate, abusive, hateful, harassing, profane, defamatory, threatening, obscene, sexually explicit, infringing, privacy-invasive, vulgar, offensive, indecent or unlawful."


You broke the terms of this agreement. Being honest, you were probably already aware that your name was infringing on the rules, but you didn't find it personally important.

Without knowing the exact name (don't post it here, lol), it's impossible for any of us to provide any real feedback about how "excessive" EA's response was. Targeting a race group, being demeaning toward a gender or endorsing similar types of hate or abuse is always disgusting.
On the other hand, names like "FartSmeller23" are disgusting in a different sense, lol.

2 Replies

  • ren000014496505's avatar
    ren000014496505
    3 years ago

    @LaughingSharko I appreciate your reply on this matter and I understand it is a tricky situation to navigate while having to leave a vital piece of the puzzle out. If you would like I can message you the name on a different platform other than the EA Forums (Discord preferably) so we are not in violation of the TOS. Then I would like to see if your opinion sees any changes.

    There are a few things that I think will be very beneficial to clear up.

    Firstly, you were wondering which version of the TOS I was quoting. The TOS I am referring to is the one on EA's official website (ea.com/legal/user-agreement). There is no version number on that page specifically but at the very bottom of the agreement there is a line that states "Last Updated: November 7, 2022." I would assume that EA would not have an outdated version of the user agreement as the first link on the legal page of their website. All of the information I quoted in my original post was at the bottom of section 6 (Rules of Conduct). For future reference, you could have gone to the user agreement, pressed CTRL+F, started typing in my quote, and that would have taken you directly to the cited text. 

    Next, I did see the words "when practical" and "may" in your quoted text as well as in my quoted text. Honestly, I did not pay much attention to those words so I appreciate you bringing that up. I know you do not work for EA nor did you write the terms of service so I am strictly asking for your opinion in the upcoming questions. What do you think constitutes practicality in that sense? In other words, when do you think it would have been practical for EA to notify somebody about a violation? Obviously, it would depend on the violation (something that is not a severe violation, see my quoted text in the original post for more details on severe violations), so I am looking for broad, opinionated examples here. Another question I have is, why does it seem as if other gaming platforms thought it was practical to notify me before the ban and EA does not? Again, I am looking for your opinion and I am aware that you do not work for EA or the other gaming platforms that I have mentioned in my original post. If you do not have an opinion on the aforementioned questions, simply replying with a phrase such as "I don't know" or "I don't have an answer for that" is enough.

    Lastly, believe it or not, I am aware that I should have read the TOS before installing the game. I admittedly made a mistake in that matter and I thought I made it clear in my original post. Apparently, I did not so I will reiterate. I absolutely agree that I broke the terms of service and that I should have to change my name and receive some sort of demerit. The question remains the same as to whether the punishment crime so to speak.

    A few things that I can say about the display name is that it did not involve race, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, swear/curse words, or hate speech. Just to be clear, the legal definition of hate speech is defined as "speech that is intended to insult, offend, or intimidate a person because of some trait (as race, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or disability). That definition was found in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

    Thank you again for your reply and I look forward to hearing what you have to say next.

  • LaughingSharko's avatar
    LaughingSharko
    3 years ago
    @ren0000144965050 Well, since you asked for my opinion, here it is:

    1. I don't think it's reasonable to expect a business with probably millions of customers to give you a warning (that you're more likely than not to even notice in your inbox) for a 7-day suspension due to violating the terms of service.
    2. If we were talking about an actual permanent ban, then, yes, I would expect them to give you a warning prior to completely banning your account.
    3. Your past experiences with other companies make me think that you enjoy provoking them or choosing names that are either double entendres or likely to offend parents or underage users. Of course, as I mentioned, it's not possible to know for sure without knowing the name (I don't feel comfortable giving out my account info online, sorry).
    4. Including a temporary suspension along with the communication about why may also help to stress to the person the seriousness of the TOS. People have been permanently banned after breaking the TOS twice in chat, so it's not a joking matter anymore.
    5. As far as the actual moderation of names and offensive terms, I'm on the fence. I am of the opinion that you should treat everyone with respect, so I have little tolerance for messages or names that force others to see things that make them uncomfortable. On the other hand, I have heard, not experienced, mind you, that EA uses customer service agents from countries that don't speak English natively. There have allegedly been instances of people being banned for self-deprecating comments such as "I'm such an idiot," where the intent is obviously not to insult anyone. That doesn't seem fair to me, but it doesn't seem to be the case here, either.

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