@Xenagos You seem to have misunderstood my point. Free speech isn’t some law that applies to a company or doesn’t, its a universal concept and value that RGL can either choose to uphold or not. It doesn’t matter whether the country they are based in has implemented it, it is still a concept that exists. The morality of players being allowed to say slurs can be argued. I think it is a fine idea to prevent them from saying slurs in matches because that would reflect poorly on RGL. It is an entirely different thing however to police individuals in private discord servers entirely separate from RGL. I personally believe it is not up to RGL admins to decide what can and cannot be said in private servers.

@Xenagos The post specified private discords. Plus the concept of free speech is a global thing, not an American thing. Yes it has been implemented in American law, but the concept extends to all entities including RGL. Just because RGL isn’t legally obligated to uphold free speech doesn’t mean they aren’t morally obligated to.

@HA-Johnny The problem with this is that you are still banning people for things that occur off platform. Remember, this is a competitive TF2 league, not an ethics community. Does somebody being racist off platform in private really have any bearing on the way the game is played at all? No. Therefore I think it is unreasonable for RGL to ban players for things that have no bearing on the service they provide. My overall point being people being racist (even sincerely) off platform has no bearing on actual scrims and matches, therefore RGL has no right to police it.

@vibeisveryo das me! In all seriousness though from that spot it was way to easy to lock down both chokes because you can snipe over the fence.

Listen, with all due respect, people are here to play the game. Why should it matter to you if someone in a PRIVATE DISCORD says something offensive to you? Does it affect your matches and scrims? If not then why should RGL police it? Doing so would be an extreme overstep and in my opinion would serve to push some of the best players out of the scene. If what someone is saying bothers you, it is easy to simply block them and leave the server. Also your point about RGL bans not infringing upon free speech is only in a legal sense. If RGL banned people for what they say in a private discord it would absolutely be a violation of free speech.

@Xenagos Regarding your first point about there already being rules in place policing private servers, would you mind providing a link? I was unable to find anything.

In regards to your point about freedom from consequences, free speech protects you from consequences from the overbearing entity but NOT your peers. In this example it would mean a fellow teammate telling someone off for using slurs would not be violating free speech, but RGL banning people for what they say WOULD be a violation because in this case RGL is the overbearing entity.

@Xenagos Again, the post explicitly refers to RGL policing PRIVATE DISCORDS. That’s what we are debating here.

@Mothership As per my many, many previous posts, the “free speech” being referenced here is an abstract moral concept, not a law. Whether or not RGL is legally obligated to uphold free speech on their platform has no bearing on whether or not they are morally obligated to.

@cyclowns Again though I would argue that it IS a private forum in regards to being policed by RGL because said server isn’t associated with RGL at all. RGL does not have a monopoly on competitive TF2, and if a private pug server chooses to allow slurs, then it is their choice. RGL shouldn’t be allowed to ban players for using slurs in pugs because the pugs have nothing to do with RGL as an organization (even if they happen to contain players who play in RGL)

@Xenagos It is though. The entire argument is over whether RGL should be able to police private interactions between players, which boils down to a free speech issue because if RGL bans people for the things they say in private, then they are violating those player’s free speech.

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team mom = Elena Manetta

@vibeisveryo das me! In all seriousness though from that spot it was way to easy to lock down both chokes because you can snipe over the fence.

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@hedaeoh But in the end it is RGL doing the enforcing in a place they have no right to enforce their rules. RGL polices RGL scrims and matches only, not the actions of their players in general. If they receive a report unrelated to TF2, should that player be banned? No, because RGL ONLY deals with what happens within their TF2 league.

@Kawaiyi Ignoring the fact that this could easily be abused by people who want to get others banned for no real reason, the person offended by this type of speech already has means to combat it OUTSIDE of RGL. There is no reason to involve RGL in private servers when people can block others or simple leave that server.

@Teapot If its behind closed doors then yes. RGL has no right to police what you say in a private discord.

@Kawaiyi Equating not policing private discords to “perpetuating racism” is completely unfair. That would be like saying “because the police don’t search homes every day, they are perpetuating drug abuse”