Back in the day, there was a plethora of posts across the internet showcasing hilariously misinformed gamers trying to get their accounts reinstated after a mysterious ban. Most were feigning ignorance on why they were banned. At least some were honestly befuddled and could not remember calling for a second holocaust, presumably because they did it so often they no longer kept track. After the cause of the ban was unearthed there were two common refrains that almost always came up: "this violates my first amendment rights," and, "you can't do this, I gave you money." These never worked, of course, and based on the lack of new images of the same to entertain us it seems gamers understand that now. It is doubtful many gamers understand why those arguments don't work though, and it basically boils down to two reasons:
1) The first amendment prevents the government from infringing your right to speak.
2) You signed a legally binding contract.
The first mistake practically everyone makes when considering the effects of the constitution is not differentiating the government from private entities. While some tenets of the first amendment have been vicariously imposed on private enterprises, like the freedom to practice religion in the form of anti-discrimination laws, the right to speak freely has not been given such far reaching enforcement. Free speech is also not as broad as online angry twelve-year-olds think. Even if the first amendment were applied directly to private entities in the same legal scope as it applies to the government today, it still wouldn't do much to protect anyone from bragging about escapades with your mom last night. The first amendment has never protected all speech. It has always had carve-outs for speech tending to lead to harm. This includes obscenity, fighting words, and threats. If you think describing, in detail, your carnal knowledge of another's mother doesn't qualify as obscenity or fighting words you might want to try it on strangers IRL.
After having fallen through the imaginary safety net of the first amendment, one might think that having paid for the service entitles you to some kind of protection or safety from the ban-hammer. Unfortunately you signed a contract. You probably don't remember putting pen to paper, but you should remember clicking a box saying you agreed to something. Turns out courts consider those checked boxes as good as a signature and you have entered a legally binding contract.
Standard Terms of Use will prohibit a range of behavior and when you click "Accept" you are often agreeing that you won't:
- Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others.
- Publish, post, upload, distribute or disseminate any inappropriate, profane, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent or unlawful topic, name, material or information.
- Publish, post, upload, distribute or disseminate any topic, name, material or information that incites discrimination, hate or violence towards one person or a group because of their belonging to a race, a religion or a nation, or that insults the victims of crimes against humanity by contesting the existence of those crimes.
The above language is stock for online games and forums, and it is largely redundant. Why? Because every Terms of Use will have something along the lines of "Company reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate your access to any or all Company Services and the related services or any portion thereof at any time, without notice." This provision means the company can, in fact, perma-ban you for no reason, let alone because you just had to shout your favorite racial slur eighty times to the tune of Yankee Doodle. What about refunds? Well you don't own anything you paid for. Another common provision you'll find in Terms of Use:
"'Service Provided Content' consists of those materials provided to you (e.g., unlockable content, accounts, stats, virtual assets, virtual currencies, codes, and achievements) in connection with use of the Company Services. While the Company Services may allow you to 'earn', 'buy', or 'purchase' Service Provided Content within or in connection with gameplay, you do not in fact own or have any property interest in the Service Provided Content. Unless otherwise specified in writing, any Service Provided Content that you receive is licensed to you as set forth herein, and you shall have no ownership right thereto."
This provision means you agreed you paid for the right to use someone else's property. It was a rental, and there is no guarantee for how long you could rent it for. This provision is also one of the reasons loot boxes are not considered gambling, but that is for another post.
This all might seem a little unfair, but court's reason you have every right and ability to not click the agreement and just walk away. The fact you are a noob at contracts and skipped the tutorial is no defense. So next time, maybe just leave the mic off.