OW2 Forums Currently Illegal on EU

General Discussion
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It seems since 2024, European Union increased the range of platforms impacted by the DSA (Digital Services Act), targeting now also social media platforms that connect business with their customers, which include OW2 forums:
https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/digital-services-act_en

This act defines a set of rules applied in EU, that protects users against the autoritism of the business, and OW2 forums is not respecting a few of them.

The DSA’s overall aim is to ensure that users understand the decisions that impact their use of digital services. (…) The explanation accompanying a sanction needs to detail the specific grounds on which the decision was based.

Guess what, censorship is on high level in this forum, once you are sanctioned you receive a notification saying that you broke 1 of the 1001 rules of the Terms Conditions. It doesn’t specifically say which one as required now by the DSA.

It’s like being stoped by the police, and receiving a fine of 500€, and they explain that “you broke 1 of the traffic laws, go read the traffic laws book to find which one you didn’t respect”. Do you agree with that?

  • Effective safeguards for users, including the possibility to challenge platforms’ content moderation decisions. (…) Users are informed about, and can contest removal of content by platforms

The DSA states that each online platform should have an internal mechanism allowing users to contest the decisions took by the moderation team. Do we have any mechanism here? Is there any place here in the forum where I can find how to contest a decision? If I remember if we do a post talking about a previous sanction we risk to have a 2nd one.

Recipients of the service (…) shall be entitled to select any out‑of‑court dispute settlement body that has been certified in accordance with paragraph 3 of this Article in order to resolve disputes relating to those decisions, including complaints that have not been resolved by means of the internal complaint‑handling system referred to in that Article.

If the internal appeal mechanism fails, we should have access and clear instructions on how to use an external one. In this case we should for exemple, have an email address that we can reach for appeal a sanction on this forum.

You can find all the details here: https://www.eu-digital-services-act.com/Digital_Services_Act_Articles.html

I hope this open your eyes about all the irregularities Blizzard is doing and on how they think themselves above the law. I remember a few of you told this is all allowed because “it’s their forums”. Guess what is not a case anymore.

Fortunately we are now able to change the things, there is not yet a centralized organization to monitor the application of those rules, but each country has it’s own organization for it: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/dsa-dscs#1720699867912-1. It’s on you to decide if the autoritism should still live here or not.

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Pretty cool. Some GMs already definitely deserved to get banned from running rampant, I wonder why noone has ever been punished so far by the community. Like, some dood from Saudi who has 100 millions just pay for getting the GM personal info and show them it’s not a new age or something where they can just do whatever they want, it can go real fast. I’m sure there are a bunch of lazy butt GMs who have no reason why they should exist. If someone gets banned for no reason like one dude from our 3 stack some months ago there should be consequences.

Anyway, big companies like Meta had to pay massive fines for this kind of stuff int he past so it’s not surprising if microsoft or whatever it is now is in for trouble.

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It doens’t concern GMs and the sanctions took in game.
It concerns the way on how the forum moderation actually works who is not according the DSA (DSA regulates forums, social networks, marketplaces etc… not videogames).

I remember the moderation in this forum was very autoritary, a lot of topics were suppressed without any reason, then you receive a notification saying “you break the code of conduct” they never specify which rule we broke. And we have no way to contest that, you open a 2nd thread talk about it you risk a ban. It seems the DSA rules explicitly regulate this kind of attitude from business and do not accept it.

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Great to see the EU taking a stand against this kind of thing…

About time too…

:pouting_cat: :+1:

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These forums are moderated by American staff as well, not just those from the EU.

When Blizzard closed its offices in France and Ireland, customer support, GM, moderation quality extremely declined and went downhill. Many American staff members come across as narcissistic and entitled, whereas Europeans still maintain a human approach to solving problems and empathy.

More regulations are planned for the EU, which is great, as this company has been treating its players like shi…

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I think you’re barking up the wrong tree with this one sadly

The principle of “country of origin”:
This principle means that a platform’s rules and regulations are determined by the location of the platform itself, rather than the location of its users.

Whilst it has an EU URL, it’s a US based forum. Unaware if the US has similar legislation. With the current administration… They’ll probably find away to mess it up

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That doesn’t mather, Blizzzard it’s currently operating in Europe and selling content in Europe, so it should respect European laws. American companies cannot enter here selling guns only because it’s legal in US. There was already cases of foreign companies like X and TikTok who got finned by disrespecting DSA: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_926

Wrong. The server hosting this forum is currently located at Ireland (EU member).

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It should, but that law is only for companies based in the EU.

Whilst that might be true, the company operating it is no based out of Ireland.

That being said, if you are so adamant they are breaking it. Lawyer up and take them on. Talking about it on here isn’t going to make them change anything.

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Few time ago you said that OW2 cannot have lootboxes because a few countries in EU restrict it.
Now you say that the EU laws doesn’t mather because Blizzard is not settled in Europe.
Pick a side please…

What about GDPR regulations? Blizzard should not worry about the EU Data Privacy regulations only because is settled outside EU?

EU action is simple. Send an ultimatum to Blizzard saying that they should pay a fine and adapt their forums otherwise it will be blocked by European ISP’s.

X and TikTok already got sanctioned because they didn’t respect DSA.
Facebook, Google too but for other reasons (GDPR).

Also is explicitly written in the first link:

All online intermediaries offering their services in the single market, whether they are established in the EU or outside, have to comply with the new rules.

I don’t even need a lawyer. Each EU country has an organization in charge of monitoring the application of those rules, we can just contact them.

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Do it them. See what happens.

Be the change you want to see or something.

Moaning about it will get you no where.

GDPR doesn’t have a “country of origin” clause. It relates to the data source origin.

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Who told you I didn’t that already?
There is nothing wrong on share this with OW2 community.

Where did you saw that clause for DSA?
I just shared a sentence from their European Commission official website saying that it doesn’t matter where is the company located.

All online intermediaries offering their services in the single market, whether they are established in the EU or outside, have to comply with the new rules.

You can read it by yourself: https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/digital-services-act_en

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If you had. You’d of said so.

It is in the legislation. You need to scan through the document.

Here’s another problem. In a single market. OW/Blizzard/Activision/Microsoft don’t operate in a single market.

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Point me where you find that, it’s all nonsense.
I searched for “country” inside the document I only have 1 result and is nothing related what you said.

If I Google that thing “origin country clause” it talks about the things we have in producs like textils saying “Made In China” etc… idk how this is related with that.

If you wanna a look the official document: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2065/oj/eng (page 41 art 2 that defines the scope of the legislation)

This Regulation shall apply to intermediary services offered to recipients of the service that have their place of establishment or are located in the Union, irrespective of where the providers of those intermediary services have their place of establishment.

Are you a native English speaker? I’m not and I could understand that sentence better than you.
The words “single market” are referring to the European common market, which is called European Single Market.

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Funny,
Those last months I received a few emails from different American companies saying that they are adapting their policies to respect those new rules.
Meanwhile nothing from Blizzard for the moment.

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Whilst they “should”. There is nothing to suggest they have to.

Others might just do it for a quick PR win. Blizz/Microsoft don’t really need that or care enough to do it.