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Blizzard's Banned Over 30,000 Racist Accounts In 2020, & It's Working
Amidst continuing civil unrest in the U.S., Blizzard announces it has banned over 30,000 racist accounts since the beginning of 2020. For several weeks now, protests against police brutality and the death of George Floyd have spread across the U.S., and companies all over have tried their best to show their support for the movement.
From delays to donations, various companies have taken steps to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, in their own ways. While some efforts have gone over well, others have not been received as positively, due to their apparent lack of awareness and meaningfulness behind their actions. Blizzard has already fallen into this category due to its mishandling of the Hong Kong controversy it was faced with late last year, but they are still hoping to repair their image.
In a news post on their company website, Blizzard president J. Allen Brack wrote a letter regarding his, "commitment for Blizzard to do better." Brack later wrote, "that our actions would matter more than our words—we have been publicly silent until now because action is the important part." The full post outlines the actions Blizzard has taken, which include using A.I. and machine learning to suspend and ban accounts for toxic and racist behaviors.
So far, since the beginning of the year, over 30,000 accounts have been suspended due to hate speech, which has resulted in a significant decrease in reports across Blizzard games. Per Brack's letter, this has lead to, "a 43% reduction in poor behavior reports, and a 59% reduction in the re-offense rate." Other steps that Blizzard is taking were detailed in the same post, such as supporting Black-owned businesses, hosting sessions with activists, and supplying resources for employees to educate themselves. These changes do not appear to affect the actions of players, and is a different approach than the ones taken by other video game companies.
With Blizzard having developed and published so many popular games, any efforts to moderate such a large player base would be daunting, if not overwhelming. Knowing this, the steps that Blizzard has taken to improve its lobbies are commendable. Yet, its approach to handling the Hong Kong controversy still looms over the company, and it has already raised questions about the sincerity behind Blizzard's actions. Whether or not the company genuinely cares about what is happening in Hong Kong, players still remember how poorly Blizzard handled the issue and are quick to throw it back at it. Despite all of this, it can not be argued that the steps Blizzard has taken so far have been ineffective; the numbers do not lie.
