Report: Lesbian Finds Herself Banned From Xbox Live

February 26, 2009 -

A woman who identified herself as a lesbian in her Xbox Live profile has reportedly been banned from Microsoft's online gaming venue.

The woman, known only as "Teresa," told The Consumerist:

My [Xbox Live] account was suspended because I had said in my profile that I was a lesbian. I was harassed by several players, 'chased' to different maps/games to get away from their harassment. They followed me into the games and told all the other players to turn me in because they didn't want to see that crap or their kids to see that crap.

As if xbox live is really appropriate for kids anyways! My account was suspended and xbox live did nothing to solve this, but instead said others found it offensive...

Microsoft does nothing to stop this or prevent it, but instead sides with the homophobes...

Microsoft, which in September received a perfect score from gay equality group Human Rights Campaign, has struggled with the gay identity issue on Xbox Live.

Most notably, in 2008 XBL banned the gamertag "Richard Gaywood," even though it was the user's actual name.

Comments

Re: Report: Lesbian Finds Herself Banned From Xbox Live

Submitted by tacc on Thu, 02/26/2009 - 11:16.

So there are people that don't have anything better to do than chasing other people? I'm surprised that they are intelligent enough to use a console.

 

And Microsoft supports them where they can...

 

Re: Report: Lesbian Finds Herself Banned From Xbox Live

Submitted by Amosh on Thu, 02/26/2009 - 11:38.

This really has nothing to do with her being homosexual/lesbian, it is more of her having a trigger happy customer service rep scan over her account.

What probaly happened was the bot/person reviewing her account searched for certain "hot" words (such as racial slurs, or ironically in this case, anti gay/lesbian speech) and took action not for the context of the words, but simply for their inclusion.

Should she be pissed? Yeah, but not at Microsoft, but the kids who followed her around.

Should Microsoft develope a better account investigation method? Yes, but I don't see how viable a "personal" review would be considering people abuse the report feature and that any linear approach would get overwhelmed.

Summation, I don't see this as Microsoft siding with anyone, their automated system for enforcing rules just isn't perfect, and sometimes this happens.

 

Disclaimer: This is pure conjecture, I have no real evidence that suggests this is how Microsoft polices accounts, I don't play on my xboxlive account that much anymore.

Re: Report: Lesbian Finds Herself Banned From Xbox Live

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Thu, 02/26/2009 - 11:42.

Well, one solution would be that certain complaints will be ignored.

FOr isntance if a perso nsubmits a reprot because someone beat them i na game or are a "fag" then it shouldn't even be looked at.

Re: Report: Lesbian Finds Herself Banned From Xbox Live

Submitted by Amosh on Thu, 02/26/2009 - 12:02.

But that creates an even bigger problem, the ignoring of reports based solely upon, if I understand what you are suggesting, the interval of time between said game and report.

By simply refusing to investigate, then you are betraying the entire purpose by blocking legitimate complaints.

Re: Report: Lesbian Finds Herself Banned From Xbox Live

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Thu, 02/26/2009 - 12:09.

Sadly that's the fact of many online comunities, thanks to the wolf criyers, legit complaints get ignored.

 
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