You can't insult in English, but you can in other languages.. Why?

NightDemonLight·9/22/2018, 7:32:16 PM·4 votes·2,798 views

Seriously, I don't understand why I can't get insulted with English words, but I can get insulted with other languages words.

This is beyond being careless, I think Riot already knows that its community isn't only made from English people, then why didn't this get fixed? Why can't people tell me to fuck off in English but they can in any other languages?

Is this what Riot wants? I mean, English is used a lot and I understand why they filtered English, but what about other languages?

You can basically evade the system by just using your native language since the words won't be censored, but what's worst is that I've noticed that some words aren't censored in-game but, in the post-game chat these words are censored.

17 Comments

AJStarhiker9/22/2018, 9:26:55 PM5 votes

The system uses a machine learning system. If you use an insult from a minority language for a region, there's a good chance the other players won't recognize the insult and therefore don't report it. And without reports the system used in that region won't learn to trigger on it.

To complicate things further, some words used to insult may have completely innocent uses--sometimes even within the same language.

EvilDustMan9/22/2018, 8:07:36 PM5 votes

You can still report them and they will get punished.

Tyaisurm9/22/2018, 8:10:47 PM3 votes

Creating an "omni-filter" for all possible variations would need too much work, and removing chat would just be easier alternative. It would also be problematic, since many things would be evaded by using creative alternatives, which in turn would need to be censored as well. And if the previous would happen, multiple completely normal words would possibly get censored as well, since many words have different meanings.

Anyway. Problems with creating multilingual filters imo:

language is not binary, and meanings of words would clash with each other
work hours used to develop solution to this is too valuable
different characters and combinations (like Ä or Å) cause more variation and problems
variations created by mixing two or more languages creates even more problems (like talking in weird english-spanish mixture)

Jo0o9/22/2018, 8:35:48 PM3 votes

I haven't seen this to be true. Had a few folks complaining about their restrictions/bans for stuff in other language last week, if memory serves.

Silent Gravity9/22/2018, 9:52:23 PM2 votes

The chat filters have no bearing at all on if chat is punishable or not. The chat filters are only there for the people who want to have it enabled. If the chat filters were on, and applied to all the different ways to phoneticize every language, then an extreme amount of regular typing in any language would be difficult to understand because of excessive %%%%% blocking everything.

For example, you would be unable to type any word that used　"ぐ" because it sounds like racist slang in another language. That would severely hamper communicating in Japanese.

If there is a specific insult that you would appreciate being added to the in-game filter, I would suggest creating a support ticket to ask for that to be added.

The IFS functions all over the world. It can read, understand, and punish toxic communication in any language. The IFS is informed by reports, and curated by humans.

I've specifically seen it punish racist slang expressed in Vietnamese (it surprised me that it was detected), and regular insults in Polish, Chinese, French, and Russian.

Drugoth9/22/2018, 10:06:45 PM1 votes

Who cares, just report them.

I believe it's good enough that the profanity filter for NA censors english words, after all, >90% of the population speaks english on the NA server...

DrCyanide9/22/2018, 8:12:10 PM1 votes

EU problems.

breakordoom4449/22/2018, 8:06:37 PM1 votes

An insult is only an insult if one chooses it to be.

If I'm on the Chinese servers, and someone calls me a retard in polish, I'm not gonna understand it, so I won't take offence.

but since English is the main language in this region of the world, English is the only language regarded. and even if riot was to look into these cases, the chances of someone telling someone to fuck off in English is A LOT more likely then in Chinese, so it would be a waste of time for a pointless goal.

and plus, if you were.... from a remote region in Iceland and I call you a dumbass in Italian, you wouldn't understand it, and thus you wouldn't care.