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Phil Spencer Says Xbox Is 'Not a Free Speech Platform' for Politics

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

In a new, in-depth interview with The New York Times, Xbox Executive Vice President Phil Spencer was asked about the connection between gaming and the polarization of American politics. To which Spencer said that Xbox is "not a free speech platform" and is designed first and foremost for games and entertainment.

Spencer discussed the idea of political and social radicalization with the New York Times.

"We see all positives and negatives of the human condition. We have people who propose to each other and get married on Xbox Live," Spencer says about Xbox's online services. "We also have conversations about politics and other things that happen. One of the things we’ve stated about our social network is we’re not a free speech platform. We’re a platform around interactive entertainment and video games. And we’re not there to allow all kinds of social discourse to happen on our platform. That’s not why we exist."

"We're not there to allow any conversation to happen on our platform," Spencer says, and more than that Xbox Live is simply not designed for that kind of politicization. "It's very difficult to come to Xbox Live and say, Okay, I want to go create a political party on the platform.'"

"You could kind of twist the tools and try to get there, but it’s just not set up for general-purpose conversations or community," Spencer says but, "It’s really set up for community around interactive entertainment and the games that run on our platform. And that’s the way we invest."
 
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01011001

Banned
Allow me to introduce you to Forza liveries.

well sure but they ban EVERYTHING... you can't even make fun of fucking north korea! even super mild shit like this KFC parody here
2021.12.07-10.50-boundingintocomics-61af3c7cb77ee.jpg


they even banned someone for having this one
2021.12.07-11.05-boundingintocomics-61af3fec051af.jpg

which isn't political at all but just a bit of dark humor... they honestly go a bit hard on the people doing fun liveries, but I guess they need to do so for the age rating? not sure
 

ManaByte

Member
Who the fuck
well sure but they ban EVERYTHING... you can't even make fun of fucking north korea! even super mild shit like this KFC parody here
2021.12.07-10.50-boundingintocomics-61af3c7cb77ee.jpg


they even banned someone for having this one
2021.12.07-11.05-boundingintocomics-61af3fec051af.jpg

which isn't political at all but just a bit of dark humor... they honestly go a bit hard on the people doing fun liveries, but I guess they need to do so for the age rating? not sure
Pour one out for the General Lee.
 

Mr Moose

Member
well sure but they ban EVERYTHING... you can't even make fun of fucking north korea! even super mild shit like this KFC parody here
2021.12.07-10.50-boundingintocomics-61af3c7cb77ee.jpg


they even banned someone for having this one
2021.12.07-11.05-boundingintocomics-61af3fec051af.jpg

which isn't political at all but just a bit of dark humor... they honestly go a bit hard on the people doing fun liveries, but I guess they need to do so for the age rating? not sure
These are funny. People get banned for this?
 

kingfey

Banned
Good.
i was up there with politics from 2016-2020, and life was shit. Constant media interaction, garbage takes on both sides, and stupid shits.

Stopped reading anything about them after march 2020. Now my life is better. No stress about politics stuff. I ignore them all. Dont care what side is it, i just dont give a crap about it.
 
So no politicized Pride, BLM, etc, then, right?
Most likely. I hope this extends to the Right's version of this stuff, too. I'm frankly over it on both sides of the coin. Let games be games.

Nope, that's all ok. He's clearly talking about censoring anything against the narrative.

For some reason this probably has the unfortunate chance of happening. Leave the extremist politics of both sides in the dust, ban both types of it. That'd be the fair and balanced approach.
 
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We'll have to see how they go about this

As long as he's neutral and take the woke shit out of the platform, I'm all for it!!!

But most of this media/platform, say shit like this, but they only come down hard on the conservative voices, and they let the social progressive voice run free.....if you want to be neutral, stay in the middle and come down hard on both sides
 

kingfey

Banned
These are funny. People get banned for this?
Putting dictator images in games, in hopes of idolizing, or memeing them is just garbage act. These people have killed tons of people. We shouldn't make them famous in a funny way. People need to despise them, considering the inhumane act they have done.
 
In other words, setting your profile pic to a BLM logo or a gay pride logo is cool. Set it to a MAGA logo, you need to be remove it as it isn't the place.

And this isn't just Xbox. I'm tired of seeing games recommended for me on PS5 because the protagonist is non-binary or some other nonsense.
 
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clintar

Member
Most likely. I hope this extends to the Right's version of this stuff, too. I'm frankly over it on both sides of the coin. Let games be games.



For some reason this probably has the unfortunate chance of happening. Leave the extremist politics of both sides in the dust, ban both types of it. That'd be the fair and balanced approach.
So you can get banned for saying black lives matter? How about all lives matter? How about police lives matter? How about dog lives matter? How about all dark matter? Where do we draw the line here?
 

old-parts

Member
I agree. I am so tired of SJWs, anti-SJWs and extremists on the Right and the Left. None of that crap belongs in gaming.

True but corporate America is much more sympathetic to one side of that and Xbox often proclaims its support for activist causes.

So what Phil Spencer is saying even if the Xbox social network is for games, only the political causes endorsed by Microsoft/Xbox are allowed run unopposed on Xbox social network.

He is not stating that Xbox is neutral platform that keeps politics out of games or its platform.
 
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Lognor

Banned
Good! One place the vocal minority can't whine and ruin it for everyone. See Twitter for that shit.
Nor those fuck tard maga morons. I love that those idiots have been relegated to the backwater of the internet. The less you know about someone's political beliefs, the better.
 

theclaw135

Banned
Is this the same interview he said "There should be multiplatform bans"?

I wouldn't go that far per se. Different accounts are different accounts.
But most platforms should have more consistent rules. So a person who continues whatever got them banned, won't last very long elsewhere.
 
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