Call of Duty Devs Promise to Toughen Bans on Racist Usernames

Infinity Ward has announced it will be adding additional resources to ban racist names from its Call of Duty games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. In a tweet published on its official social media account, Infinity Ward announced additional counter-measures to ensure users with racist and hate-oriented names are banned from its servers and games. The studio says that while it already bans users for offensive names, there will be additional counter-measures in place to ensure racist names don't slip past its filters.

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— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) June 3, 2020

This includes adding “[A]dditional resources to monitor and ID racist content, [A]dding additional in-game reporting systems to increase the number of bans by hour, [A]dding filters and greater restrictions on name changes, [E]valuating in-game improvements to make it easier to report offenses, [and] [I]ncreasing permanent bans to root out repeat offenders.” In a statement, Infinity Ward says, “There is no place for racist content in our game. This is an effort we began with launch and we need to do a better job. We’re issuing thousands of daily bans of racist and hate-oriented names. But we know we have more to do.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-call-of-duty-review&captions=true"] In the wake of the nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd, Call of Duty community members highlighted the presence of racist and hateful names in Call of Duty games, including names that directly reference Floyd’s death. Although Activision was one of the companies that announced its support for Floyd and the black community, it also brought attention to the presence of these racist names in its Call of Duty games. Infinity Ward ended its message by saying, “We apologize to our players. This is our commitment to you, our fans, thank you.” [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.