You should be banned if you say this
Cuz I disagree with it. My opinion of you not being allowed to say it is greater than your dillusion of free speech. Bend to my will and accept just punishment.
17 Comments
The First Amendment (free speech) only applies to government law, not social policy within a game. There are standards which you agree to meet when you accept the Terms of Use; if you do not accept these terms you aren't allowed to play the game, so don't sign it if you don't agree.
Nami is correct regarding the application of the first amendment.
If you walk into my home spewing racial slurs at me or my guests and tell us a bigoted and hateful opinion of us, I have every right to kick you out of my home. I can enforce whatever speech restricting rules I want in my home. Private entities have different rules than the government. On my private property, you are a guest and must follow my rules.
Another example is like going to an amusement park. The public can obtain a ticket and enter. The public is there but you break their rules, the amusement park can kick you out.
Do not be confused with "accessible to the public" with "public property." Riot is allowing their property to be accessible to the public however they can escort you off their property if you break their rules.
League of Legends is Riot's home, Riot's private property. Riot can enforce whatever speech restricting rules in their own home, their private property. Your ticket to enter is agreeing to their TOS and EULA. You break any rules in the TOS or EULA, they can revoke your entry and remove you, ie ban you.
Even freedom of speech has limits. You can't walk around town yelling at someone indefinitely without being stopped for harassment, even in the real world.
Another delusional toxic player joins in the forum crap-posting, just like "Pudding", "Cork-tuner" and "Great Muter".
You haven't shown your chat log so no one can tell how bad your comments were, but Riot and the community has very low tolerance for racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted and or otherwise hateful speech.
So if your comments fall under those kinds of speech and it was systematic and continuous for the sake of harassing a person in a game, it may be that your behavior elevated past chat bans to show you that your behavior was at an unacceptable level.
Take this for example:
You never have given a dirty look to anyone in your life before. You see someone and you give them a dirty look. Doesn't really elevate to getting arrested.
vs
You have never given a dirty look to anyone in your life before. You have never punched someone in the nose before. You go out and give someone a dirty look and punch someone in the face and break their nose. Just because you didn't punch anyone in the face before doesn't mean you get less of a punishment because it's the first nose you've broken. You went past the dirty look and elevated your offense to breaking a nose. So you're going to get punished for breaking a nose.
Look at it like this. You do not get hurt, by being unable to say your offensive opinion. Other people do get hurt because said opinion is offensive.
The system is built upon the playerbase and adheres largely to what we define as right or wrong. Free speech has nothing to do with using homophobic slurs towards someone on the internet. It's there so the government can't silence you.
By playing League you do not only accept to play adhering to Riots rules, but also to the community, since said rules are ammended by Riot to adhere with what the community wants.
Cuz I disagree with it. My opinion of you not being allowed to say it is greater than your dillusion of free speech. Bend to my will and accept just punishment.
Riot has the right to take away certain speech in their game. And punish you for it. It's not illegal since you can still say it, you just can be punished for it.