I read this YouTube comment somewhere once.
As someone who occasionally plays MMOs, I don’t think the term ‘hate speech’ could ever be used too loosely.
I have experienced this firsthand. People, of all ages, have gotten too comfortable with casually dropping “Jew”, “faggot”, “retard”, and “nigger” —and an entire assortment of other, nonsensical generational insults—into their gameplay conversation. All in the same sentence even… Plus, for whatever reason, people love to make inappropriate, often times sexist or bigoted comments. They will call you a pedophile simply because you enjoy gaming as an adult and had the audacity to randomly match with someone still in school. It’s madness.
You keep your mic off, people leave the match (but not before arrogantly assuming you don’t have one at all and calling you broke). You turn it on, and you get made fun of for the way you speak or the things you have to say. Muting people, in my opinion, is a bandaid solution. Communication is a key part of surviving in games like COD, Apex, Among Us, Fortnite…
I don’t like censorship, but perhaps this is the wake up call some people need to think before they speak.