Call of Duty: Black Ops’ emblem editor allows you to create arguably thousands of different personalized symbols for your in-game avatar and weapons if you have time and the CoD points. But if you decide to create an offensive symbol of, say, male genitalia or a Swastika, you could find yourself on the receiving end of an Xbox LIVE ban.
Director of Xbox LIVE Policy and Enforcement Stephen Toulouse is defending the decision, which some are arguing is unfair since the Swastika has religious interpretations that pre-date its association with the German Nazi Party.
“…my Twitter stream was filled with people stating that Xbox LIVE should equally ban the star of David, the Christian cross, and yes I am not kidding, the infinity symbol because under various niche interpretations of those symbols, they are as evil as the Swastika symbol and I should apply ethical relativism to all symbols on Xbox LIVE to respect all viewpoints because of the United States First Amendment,” Toulouse writes on his blog.
“If you think the Swastika symbol should be re-evaluated by societies all over the Earth, I think that’s great,” he adds. “Your Xbox LIVE profile or in game logo, which doesn’t have the context to explain your goal, is not the right place to do that. And by the way, that doesn’t just go for the Swastika, it applies to many other symbols as well that my team does indeed take action on when we see it.”
Toulouse encourages anyone who spots any offensive emblems in Black Ops to report them using the in-game option.
