Boards›Player Behavior

Chat-related punishments

The Ecdysiast·2/19/2018, 11:37:11 PM·2 votes·258 views

######Disclaimer: Based on the threads of people who have been banned and responses from the Support team regarding this matter, the official stance of Riot is that context doesn't save you from punishment. This is merely a breakdown of why that is unfair/incorrect.

There are two important definitions to point out regarding this matter:

Harassment: the act of annoying persistently
Hate Speech: speech expressing hatred of a particular group of people

Harassment requires that the action(s) be repeated continuously. One instance of pointing out a mistake in a game is not harassment, and even multiple instances of calling players out only once each during a game is not harassment.

Hate speech requires that hatred be expressed. Single words alone are not hate speech. Here's a list of mean-spirited words, and I'll show you how each can be used both as hate speech, and devoid of hatred: c.nt, idiot, f.gg.t, n.gg., Jew.

Not hate speech (but can be harassment if used repeatedly to berate another player): "Fizz is a c.nt." "Our Darius is an idiot." "These f.gg.ts don't ward." "Gangplank got 90,000g in one game, what a Jew." "N.gg. that was stupid."

Hate speech: "All women are c.nts." "Men are idiots." "I hate f.gg.ts." "Jews are greedy." "Ekko stole his tech, what a n.gg.r."

11 Comments

zPOOPz2/19/2018, 11:51:00 PM3 votes

Not hate speech (but can be harassment if used repeatedly to berate another player): "Fizz is a c.nt." "Our Darius is an idiot." "These f.gg.ts don't ward." "Gangplank got 90,000g in one game, what a Jew." "N.gg. that was stupid."

False. The very usage of the word in any context is hate speech. In each of these examples, you are attaching negative connotations to the word of choice you use... Tell me that's not hate speech.

Chermorg2/19/2018, 11:53:15 PM1 votes

I agree with you for the most part, but the part I disagree with you on is the most important part. And it's not so much a disagreement, but something you've left out.

There are words (and phrases) that have become so widely accepted as hate speech in society that there is no appropriate use of them. If you're calling Fizz a c.nt, why is that word insulting to Fizz? The word is insulting because its root is as a slang word for a female and/or her privates. Likewise, if you say "These f....ts don't ward", why is that word useful in the sentence? It is only useful because of its negative connotation being used to berate and dehumanize LGBTQ populations for decades.

There are certain words whose only meaning is hateful. The "n word" is never not hateful - no matter how much certain people try to claim it's okay. Coincidentally, these people tend to say it's okay when some people use it, but not okay when others do - which is in and of itself a discriminatory thing to say. The bottom line is that the list of hate speech Riot uses for "zero tolerance" is not large at all, and is limited only to those words whose sole connotation and meaning has inherent hate in them.

On a side, off topic note, I do enjoy reading your posts - you are very good at writing your posts and I commend you on being willing to express what you know is a controversial and/or unpopular opinion.