Positive Play Charter VS Toxic Behaviour

Hi friends! Today, I found out I am banned for a week from playing Apex (or anything on Origin). I got an email saying I used the phrase 'muted the <r-word>' in a match, which customer support qualifies as hate speech.

Now, I fully applaud EA doing something about toxic behaviour - including my own. We've all seen the randoms who are abusive over the microphone, start bullying for no apparent reason, get angry over what they perceive as being unskilled etc. It doesn't happen in 90% of the matches, but it still happens a lot.

I'm personally extremely avoidant of conflict, and like to think I only react negatively when abused. I generally don't use a mic for this reason, and try to mute people from the get-go if they show signs of toxicity. Still, plenty of that behaviour bleeds through. In my case, I thought I acted in a way that seemed proportionate to a tense situation, but I'm unsure the current system is up to the challenge of assessing this.

Problems with the current system

1. Reporting is lobsided and prone to abuse: since customer support does not listen to microphone conversations, the context is lost. Having someone scream profanities at you for no good reason changes what is adequate behaviour towards them.
2. The enforcement is unclear. There has never been confirmation that EA has done anything to suppress toxicity of other players, even if you have been reporting them for more than a year.
3. I've played over 1500 hours and the game bans me for 7 days for a single infraction. This seems excessive, especially with point 4:
4. There was no prior warning. Origin did not provide information. Took me days to find out why I couldn't log in. There is no slap on the wrist or comparative ingame notification.
5. The charter is vague, which encourages random enforcement. In real life, '<r-word>' is hate speech. But it's also a term intensively used throughout this community as a general insult. Blurring the lines between abusing protected minorities and replying with a generalized term to someone else's verbal assault is more complicated than a list of taboo words. Again, context matters.

What I'd propose to Apex

1. Lobby notification / flag if you get a slap on the wrist
2. Communicate in Origin when banned that, well, you are banned (ct. currently no error message)
3. Sliding scale, based on clearly communicated amounts of infractions
4. Inform a reporter that their complaint has had an effect
5. Clarify the charter and show it ingame (akin to the BLM screen)
6. Communicate on social media what is going on. Take toxicity seriously, but not just by wielding a banhammer. I've never had a reply on Apex' Twitter when complaining about yet another person hurling abuse.
7. Find ways to integrate context. Listen to microphones. If not technically feasible, find ways to save smaller portions around the incident or autotranscribe. Weigh other factors (did the other teammate report? Are they in the lobby with the reporter?).
8. Be more available for contact. Nobody's going to send an email that will take 72 hours to start a conversation. Origin / EA / Apex is generally hard to reach, and Apex especially only uses social media as a megaphone.
9. Random idea: a karma system for microphones. Auto-default turn off under a threshold, allow others to vote if a teammate is actually supportive or .. less so. Take away points if reported as an offender. There needs to be something between doing nothing and wielding a banhammer.

I've tried my best to give this criticism rationally, but I feel pretty awful. Apex is an important tool for me to stay sane in lockdown. The obscurity of the decision, the severity of the consequence, and frequently getting abused myself make it feel like I'm being singled out. Please find ways to enforce more fairly.