is the word "retard" considered hate speech?

PousseyW·Apr 19, 2017·3 votes·2,165 views

People are throwing it around a lot, dunno if i can include "hate speech" in my report or not, or just verbal abuse?

12 Comments

ModThe DjinnApr 19, 20172 votes

You can categorize it however you want -- I believe the system can learn from player reports, and if it sees that a large number of players consider it hate speech it will likely start to take that into consideration.

PrimaquariusApr 19, 20172 votes

Yes, since youre putting the label of "Mental Retardation" on people who just make poor decisions. Not only are these far from related, it puts a negative spotlight on what Mental Retardation really is, a motor function development issue that tends to appear early from birth

By the way, who makes poor or great decisions is a matter of opinion unless they agree with you.

eazymakaveli3Apr 19, 20172 votes

i hope not cuz i use that word often.

ModThe DjinnApr 19, 20171 votes

{quoted}

i hope not cuz i use that word often.

Be aware that it's at LEAST reportable and punishable. The question here is only whether or not it also qualifies as hate speech.

Ethereal TundraApr 20, 20172 votes

It should be hate speech. Depending on the context, I'm not certain it would always count as verbal abuse, but seeing as it is a derogatory term that targets a specific and unique group of people (just like racial terms, gender terms, homophobic terms), it should absolutely, speaking purely technically, fall under the hate speech category.

Warlord ScrapApr 19, 20171 votes

You can report for either and itll go through but yes it is considered hate speech. The only real difference is hate speech can bump up ur punishment tier. Personally i think its stupid that there 2 seperate categories

PousseyWApr 19, 20171 votes

thanks all

LeviosCarriesUApr 20, 20171 votes

I think its hate speech when people in silver tell me how to play using false information. Ban pls.

DemonCrowApr 20, 20171 votes

{quoted}

I think its hate speech when people in silver tell me how to play using false information. Ban pls.

It is not a hate speech as it depends on what situation is use. Plus there is no way in hell RIOT will instant ban for using that word. Most likely warning at most, dumb dumb.

Ada WongApr 20, 20171 votes

Depends on how the word is used...

Ex. You are a F*ing R** would be punish worthy...

Ex. Darius is Retardedly Over Powered... Ex. Daruis is a ret** champion.

I am not sure if the word auto detects and punishes if players report for other reasons or not.

Generally don't insult people no matter how pissed you get its hard not to talk shi* to other people when you get trolls, I had a game where the jungler just kept running into my lane over and over and trolling I muted everyone they win game and everyone just joked around whatever who cares, Let Riot deal with the idiot who wouldn't stop.

TrulyBlandApr 20, 20171 votes

The fact that you distinguish would imply it's not hate speech. Imagine saying something like "Damn, Rammus is almost as fast as a <insert N-word>" That can still get you banned if somebody reports you.

The main point of the hate speech category is that unlike verbal abuse, it doesn't require any of the players in the game to be insulted in particular, because it's a derogatory remark towards an entire group of people. That makes it generally a lot less context-sensitive, since just using such slurs is by itself already an insult to people. Just not to anybody in particular.

The word "retard" is pretty controversial in this regard... I've come to use the word only when hanging out with friends whom I know to not mind it, but I can see both sides in the debate and while I do not personally view/report it as hate speech I without hesitation report people for verbal abuse when they use it to insult another player.

Edit: Actually, after reading one of the other replies in this thread, I agree that labelling people as "retards" when they do some kind of mistake does fulfil my own definition for hate speech. I still wouldn't consider "retarded" as a blanket adjective for things you dislike hate speech, though. Being retarded, as politically incorrect as that word might be, is still ultimately something undesirable, so the negative connotation is not unjustified.