Ubisoft, the studio behind franchises like Rainbow Six, The Division and Assassin’s Creed, has reached a first-of-its-kind agreement with the UK police: if employees receive harsh threats from gamers, they will be referred to the authorities via fast track procedures. The harassment seems to have gotten out of hand.
What is Ubisoft up to? The BBC reports that Ubisoft’s customer relations center in Newcastle, England, is working with the Northumbria police. The aim is to take action against harassment and threats on the Internet.
To this end, the police should train Ubisoft employees to deal with toxic behavior on the Internet. In return, Ubisoft is given the opportunity to forward particularly extreme cases directly to the police, who will then take care of further processing.
The agreement is the first of its kind.
Why is that important? Andrew Holliday, one of the managers who works with the relevant team at Ubisoft, says “there have been death threats or threats of serious injury” and it’s not a problem with gaming alone, it’s a problem with the internet in general.
In the past, it has often happened that heated tempers have caused harsh threats on the Internet:
Such threats even go beyond the developers who are directly involved with the games and hit people who have nothing to do with the actual problems. In WoW, the story of the Shadowlands expansion was not well received – as a result, a book author was wished that she should die.
Not all interactions on the Internet are so extremely negative – fortunately. A streamer became a star on Twitch through one kind gesture:
Twitch streamer with only 1 viewer becomes famous through a kind gesture – This is her story
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Extreme cases are referred directly to the police
How is this supposed to work? With the new agreement, Ubisoft now wants to ensure that such extreme cases end up directly with the police and can be prosecuted. The system provides for a fast-track procedure.
This means that if Ubisoft discovers a criminally relevant case, the police will be notified immediately. Apparently, the user in question does not even have to live in the United Kingdom. Holiday explained. In an earlier case, the police were able to contact authorities in Norway directly.
Ubisoft is not the first company to take legal action in particularly tough cases of harassment:
Stalkers harass Destiny 2 developers, become racist – Now has legal ramifications
What is reported? Ubisoft does not give specific parameters for cases that are forwarded, only speaks of “the most extreme”. Overall, less than 0.01% of reports actually end up with the police. Most of them could still be handled with bans.
The aim is that gaming should be used for entertainment and that you don’t have to expect bad experiences just because you like to gamble. They want to create a better environment for everyone: “There is an appetite to make the whole ecosystem a better place.”
The problem of toxic behavior has been brewing in gaming and the internet in general for years. MeinMMO demon Cortyn already shed more light on this in 2018:
Game developers are fed up – and it’s our fault!