Not exactly breaking news, but WorldNetDaily (wnd.com) reported this past spring that a 15 year old Xbox Live gamer logged online only to find a message from Microsoft demanding that he change his controversial gamertag, “mpeach obama21.”
When contacted, a Microsoft rep pointed to this clause in their terms of service, which was supposedly violated:
Don’t create a gamertag, profile content, or in-game content that references controversial religious topics, notorious people, organizations, or sensitive current or historical events that may also be considered inappropriate.
“This name is actually, it’s not likeable,” a Microsoft Xbox LIVE spokesman identifying himself as Jordan said. “If you were Obama, what would you feel if you saw this?”
Boo-freaking-hoo. One can’t help but see this newest example of censorship as political bias. Take this portion of their terms of service, for example:
Don’t create a gamertag, profile content, or in-game content that other users may be offended by, this includes comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate any of the following: profane words/phrases, topics or content of a sexual nature, hate speech (including but not limited to racial, ethnic, or religious slurs), illegal drugs / controlled substances, or illegal activities.
There are countless gamertags, which violate this vulgarity policy, that are allowed to be used with seemingly no peep from Microsoft; ghetto_diarhea, azzwort, Floppydonkeydic, FuhQMsft, urmotherslover, sweaty pubes, URGranniesPantys, ilovedix, and probably the most offensive, JesusIsMyCumRag. (all are actual gamertags)
How Microsoft can offer a statement sticking up for the anti-Obama gamertag ban while the tags listed above are allowed to be used certainly raises some eyebrows. Surely, we are all for freedom of speech, but we do understand that a privately run company can censor their customers as they see fit. When this censorship, however, seems unfairly balanced, it is only right that companies like Microsoft receive criticism.
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