Say ‘Dick’ in an Xbox One Video or Skype, Get Suspended By MS?

Apparently someone made an Xbox One video using Upload Studio that contained the word “Dick” in it, and Microsoft suspended this user from the app for 24 hours.

[TheEnigma313]

Wow really? They shouldn't be monitoring your conversations like that. Some people deserved to be called that. I hope this isn't true.

[kreate]

They did say they will monitor u. And the user bought, agreed, and used it in such a way so....

One can argue it's also the user's fault as much as Microsoft.

[abzdine]

this is DICKtatorship!

[Visiblemarc]

Are you serious? You a think terms of service waiver of 300 pages of indeceipherable lawyer-speak should allow them to eavesdrop on and censor a private Skype conversation?

If this is legitimately happening it should scare the hell out of each and every one of us. This is so close to the camera in the home of Winston from the book 1984 that it makes the hairs stand up on my neck.

Tell me this isn't true. This has to be false rumours and clickbait. I know the guy said it was text related re:Skype but that is still creepy as hell and would make me want to unplug Kinect immediately.

[nveenio]

What if that's someone's name?

[Hellsvacancy]

"Hay man I watched Dick Tracy last...................." SUSPENDED!!!

[SilentNegotiator]

Anyone named Dick deserves to be exiled for such a potty-mouthed name. /s

MS wouldn't even let that guy from "Fort Gay" keep his real town name in his info. MS loves to suspend and punish via keyword detection.

[PLASTICA-MAN]

WHAT? What does that mean? Our Skype calls aren't private? So they are really watching us? What if I say it in other languages to my fellow mates(some deserve to be called so, at least in private calls)?

Oh Btw, I have a Skype friend whose real name is Dick, I didn't see him around these days... Does that mean...? WTF?

I think Kojima knew about this thing in advance , That's why he aborted the name of the Studio "Moby DICK" and went back to calling it Kojima Productions Western Division, otherwise he will get MGSV and his entire studio banned. /s

Btw, I remembered something, dick in german means fat/thick, so will they ban any fat german gamer or person who is following a diet?

[Ritsujun]

Xbone180'd, and Xbone720p'd.

[solid_snake3656]

"Hey Dick hows it hanging bro?" BANNED!

[Albie360]

My name is Dick!!!

[Shadow Flare]

This is ridickulous

[tokugawa]

what a load of rubbish

i spent 45mins skyping my dad yesterday and must have used enough swear words to make a sailor blush..

guess what, i aint banned

[andrewer]

"Dick Grayson is my favorite Robin" BANNED

[dmeador]

People need to chill out a little, and stop looking for ways/news to jump on, haha. He did not get banned for a monitored Skype call, it was a video he uploaded to the public domain.

[user5575708]

this is just ridiculous. anyone try pussy cat yet? probably get suspended for that too

[CoolBeansRus]

Half the people that commented here didn't even read the article. MSFT did not ban him for saying dick.

[tawak]

Vice pres. DICK cheney, is the 46th Vice President of........................ "Banned"

[Gaming101]

The X-bone hates dicks... insert joke here about the oversized X-bone being a fat lesbian who will cast vengeance on you for inserting a dick into your conversation... LOL

[memots]

well that was a "dick" move.

[mhunterjr]

It doesn't appear they were monitoring conversations, just moderating their Upload service... which is absolutely necessary considering folks can upload video footage of themselves.

It appears being banned from Upload also means being banned from Skype. He wasn't banned for his behavior on Skype.

[mydyingparadiselost]

"This is my experience with Skype: “Was typing to my buddy on Skype, typed a few words of profanity talking about movies, and when I jumped back to Xbox One, it said I was banned from it for the same reason, citing “past behaviour”.”

[Cueil]

that's probably the real reason... he was temp banned from anything that uploaded videos

[JBSleek]

That wasn't monitoring. He uploaded using the Upload Studio and MS suspended him.

It's just like Google would handle YouTube or any other upload service.

[Visiblemarc]

No, no it isn't. Youtube is moderated based on community feedback. Also, private exchanges are NEVER moderated on Youtube.

[Shaaunyb]

@Visiblemarc

So they don't monitor videos at all? They don't have something that detects the different skin shades to determine whether a video is suitable or not?

[vallencer]

He uploaded the video with him saying the word. It's a little different when there uploaded to be seen by everyone versus Skype being between your friends and not uploaded. Just don't upload videos with you cussing it's as simple as that.

[Prime157]

I question the validity of this, but the average gamer is 32.. I don't mind hearing someone saying it. free speech. And should be able to upload.

There's a better way to moderate than this if it's true... example: give it a "mature rating" and allow parental controls to not allow the viewing.

[avengers1978]

And if your name is Dick?

[torchic]

spare a though for Dick Dastardly, can't catch the pigeon and now forever exiled from Xbox One :(

some however might say that it's a blessing in disguise...

[Cueil]

no one is named Dick... it's shortened name for Richard

[Bobby Kotex]

No more talking about an American hero: Dick Cheney.

[andyo13]

When XONE was first announced this is what all the media were talking about. The fact that it's monitoring you so closely it can sense your heart beat and had to be on 100% of the time and always connected.

Yet a lot of people seem to have forgotten this and they're buying it in droves. So people seem to have a very short memory.

[H0RSE]

Seeing how both the upload software and the xbox services are both property of MS, monitoring doesn't sound as "1984" as some make it to be...

You are using their service, and thus them monitoring their service(s) doesn't really seem that out of the ordinary. When players opt to upload a vid to skydrive, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some form of monitoring, you know, to check for boobs, penises, or foul language. As for Skype, I have actually skyped with friends, with enough curse words flying around to empty a bar full of sailors, and no action was taken against us.

This isn't like Youtube - it is much more privatized. Virtually anyone can upload to youtube, yet only people with X1's can use the upload software and services included with it. The services MS has provided, isn't a soapbox for people to do and say whatever they want. It's like a private club with different rules. Whether or not their rules may be too strict or not, is an entirely different discussion.

That being said, There's a couple things:

1 - Is this a case of some Orwellian MS ploy over it's users? It is still just a rumor.

2 - If it is true, how far does this type of thing extend and what are the reasoning from MS? Many seem to think that MS would do these types of things, just because they're evil, and while that makes for a good movie plot, it doesn't really translate well to real life...

There has to be a reason would do these things, and one obvious reason would to assure others that their service(s) are "squeaky clean" and as non-offensive as possible, not only to make for a more enjoyable place for other users, but to essentially cover their asses from a legal standpoint.

3 - X1 owners agreed to the terms (which many likely didn't even read) so what's done is done.

Finally, the statement you made about the Kinect:

"The fact that it's monitoring you so closely it can sense your heart beat and had to be on 100% of the time and always connected."

Is false. It doesn't have to be connected or on 100% of the time. I have used the X1 without the Kinect plugged in.

[solidt12]

What if your name is Dick?

[1Victor]

so what should I call my friend Dick on XB1?

[Ezz2013]

Kcid

[Tiechie]

Someone with a xbox one fancy testing this out?

[solar]

When you play under a propriety systems you play by their rules.

[Blachek]

The guy stated that he sent it in a message to one of his buddies, I imagine it isn't too hard to flag something as offensive...

Maybe he flagged it, or maybe Microsoft is running some code designed to clean up their online services... I am going to hold judgment on this issue until there are more instances of people being banned for their casual conversations amongst friends or it's confirmed that he sent a message that was flagged by another user.

[Yodagamer]

So they're bad for making sure they have a clean environment? I don't know about you, but i wish it would have happened more on xbox 360 with the kids and annoying people.

[n4rc]

Save your breath.. People don't want logic, they want to argue crap they already know the answer to..

Game uploads get sent to everyone.. You see them when you browse a game etc.. There has to be some control and moderation or you end up with the crap ps4/twitch just went through..

Your private conversations are not censored or moderated.. Only what you share with the public which includes little kids

[3-4-5]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Motherlover thinks otherwise

[FlyingFoxy]

Voice recognition has always been patchy at best, it could probably mistake Tick for Dick.. they are likely just opening themselves up to a lot of tech support issues with this.

[lpc]

Meray lun pay charay Microsoft

[lpc]

DickSoft

[gigoran]

All the people critisizing microsoftcck and they always online drm camera monitoring BS don't look so biased now do they? They were in fact CORRECT! So... suck it xbone supporters!

[Billybobjoey]

Hah. That's interesting. Microsoft trying to censor, there will probably be some way around it discovered at some point in time.

[MasterCornholio]

Hey have you seen the new Dick Tracy movie?

-Microsoft bans user-

LOL

[Xsilver]

what happens if the Kinect thinks you said Dick would you still get banned :/.

[Gozer]

It doesn't work that way. You have to upload a video to Skydrive and post it on the internet before anyone would try to censor you.

@The Meerkat
Because using profanity isn't tolerated. Why did you say"Why the F should MS decide what I can and cant say" Funny you censored yourself for N4G using a text message, but you feel its ok to use profanity in voice and video on Live. I think you are a sony fanboy trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

@xsilvr
And Im sure he would get suspended from Live had someone reported him for being inappropriate. This is a family service, not a drunken night club.

[The Meerkat]

What about words that begin with dick?

Like Dictator, Dictatorship (yes I'm talking about you MS)

edit Gozer: fair enough. I was expecting the power of the cloud to do the censoring. Still, why the F should MS decide what I can and can't say?

[Xsilver]

@Gozer wait hold on "he did something similar in Skype and was also suspended from that app, yet he as of this writing is still suspended" he got suspened from skype too.

[Fishy Fingers]

"Still, why the F should MS decide what I can and can't say?"

Because your using their service having agreed to their terms and conditions. Not condoning it, just explaining.

[Inception]

Hey, have you read the latest Batman? DICK Grayson got killed by the Joker!

-MS bans user-

!@#$%^&

:P

[GortJester]

I was thinking the same thing, what if I upload my buddy and I playing Dead Rising 3 where one of the characters you play as is named Dick... Will they ban their own game when Nick refers to Dick by his name? Dumb....

[OlgerO]

What the hell, is this not from your Nexus 7 ?

[MasterCornholio]

I still use my PC........

[Hellsvacancy]

Oh no you beat me to it

[torchic]

"duuuude Dick Dastardly & Muttley In Their Flying Machines was such a great cartoon!"

-Microsoft bans user-

:(((

[Xsilver]

Really? in this day and age censorship is stupid it's called freedom of speech and people just Do what they want http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Kaneda]

You can create your own game console or app and say what you want to say. No one will stop you. That is freedom of speech.

But if you use another network. You have to agree to their rules. If you don't they terminate your service.

[hankmoody]

Kinda funny that they'd get upset about that but making videos like this is totally acceptable:

https://skydrive.live.com/?...

[DEEBO]

Freedom give us a choice,passcodes and age verification rules.

[OrangePowerz]

What if his friends name is Dick or he wants to watch Dick Tracy or Moby Dick? :-D

[Visiblemarc]

That's what makes it extra creepy, it would indicate contextual analysis...meaning it could be also gathering marketing information from private conversations...oh wait that was one of the first Kinect 2 rumours and I believe it may be happening and it's creepy.

Also, who are they to censor my private conversations with their absurd morality that defines words as either good or bad? Yet the machine was basically built to run murder simulation discs. (Don't get me wrong, I love FPS/violent games, yet it seems hypocritical to say there's such a thing as "bad words" when your bread and butter is shotgun blasts to the head and chainsaw kills.)

[JohnnyTower]

Real Dick move by m$.

[CandyFace]

Better not talk about dirk from dragons lair then :3
but seriously... this is pretty absurd.

[mydyingparadiselost]

Well, this officially makes MS worse than the government as far as spying goes.

[Ketzicorn]

Hey Rick how was your day?

Bannned.......

[Consoldtobots]

only if you're a north korean dictator. : D

[mercyless9]

So use d1ck or dik what ever lol

[Bhuahahaha]

lol

[KingDadXVI]

Well at least he was not showing his dick on Playroom. :)

[Rivitur]

Those ppl should just use ustream instead of twitch...

[Ko_Uraki]

And what about the character Dick Dastardly? I can't use it as Nickname :(

[Phoenix76]

That, and Dick Turpin lmao

[The Meerkat]

Holy boy wonder Batman!

But seriously, for a company that comes from a land where they defend their freedom of speech with fully automatic machine guns this is a bit strange.

[ruefrak]

Sorry Richard, you have to go by "Rich" from now on.
Why does MS "ban" people all the time? It seems to be a big thing on the Xbox. I'm always seeing stories of users getting banned for this or that.

[jackanderson1985]

you could get similar bans last gen if you were caught using profanity of any kind, not sure why it's news now

[kingPoS]

This is setting a bad precedent! Remember SOPA, it's a good that didn't happen. At the same time if MS is allowed to continue doing this, it can only become worse.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[Wikkid666]

They don't monitor conversations. They do monitor complaints. If there is recorded proof, well there is a good chance of getting features blocked.

[DarkEnergy]

I thought MS was not going to be monitoring skype? or am i just thinking the unthinkable?

[BobBelcher]

He was probably one of those 'jerks' that they mentioned when they discussed the reputation system...

[ELFANKOOSH55555]

What if someone says pussy cat?

[AgitatedOcelot]

What's new pussy cat? Ba-a-a-ned.

[Veneno]

It's not unusual to banned by anyone. You'll find it happens all the time.

[WMANUW]

WTF?monitoring my conversations?is it true?

[FrigidDARKNESS]

If this is true than Microsoft has created a mess. Their are some people name Dickie and may use Dick for short. You cou could be sitting with a kid watching a cartoon or tv show and at the end this comes up and you may say this.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[LordDhampire]

I doubt this is true, everyone trying to get out of bans these days, and if uploads a video with profanity then he should deal with it (not that dick is profanity)

[gnothe1]

Didn't a guy just get busted for sexual acts with his girl on PlayStation twittch...stupof asses should get banned...

[Advanxed]

This may or may not be true however, i have been suspended from game dvr service for 7 days. I did use profanity and included use of middle finger.

[strigoi814]

dont invite your friend whos name is Dick

[solid_snake3656]

XBone is a Dick free zone. Sorry no Dicks allowed . Well at least now we know which console Dick Cheney prefers.

[V0LT]

Well..There goes 90% of xbox live members.

[TechOne]

*100% xbox live members

[V0LT]

lol! I was being generous ;)

[JessiePinkmanYo]

They'd shit their pants listening in on a typical CoD lobby if the word Dick bothers them.

Edit-Also, in an opposite move, didn't Pornhub say they being supported on PS4?

[CocoWolfie]

hey you heard about that new game dead rising 3?! yeah wanna play nick and ill play d.. *banned*? ._.

[MightyNoX]

Rick! I said Rick! For the love of Bob, I said RICK!

[Jamaicangmr]

Why is Microsoft monitoring your skype conversation? This is very unsettling. Everytime i hear something like this i envision the kinect lens just glowing an evil red.

Skype is for your personal chat they should not be monitoring it. Makes me not even wanna use it on my PC or phone now because God knows i say shit on there.

[DCfan]

ReDICKulous

[MightyNoX]

You can't Xbox Live Gold

[user7402931]

MMMMMMEEEEEEEEGATTTTTOOOOOOOOO N

[Nintenja]

Maybe on an Upload video but not Skype. Give me a break.

[SynestheticRoar]

Ah. You dicks.

[MegaRay]

What if someone asked me Rubin's real name?

[Playstationologist]

I am in awe of the direction Xbox has gone. It would be much easier to just let the game ratings and kid's parents do their jobs and let people do what they want. Everyone else can mute/avoid to their heart's desire. Personally, all the banning is a major turnoff for a $60 service. Same thing with games that give you a timeout when you leave a game.

These are GAMES, we're supposed to be having fun not watching our mouths or forced to finish a laggy/hacked game. Man I would have argued Xbox over Sony all day 1-2 years ago. Now just the thought of Xbox literally makes me sick and a little mad.

[ziggurcat]

What if your name us Richard, but you go by Dick? You get banned for saying your buddy's name?

Sleeeeazy

[Getowned]

well, this officially creeps me out, I think i'm going to stay clear of the xbox1. I don't understand their want or the need for all the censorship, seems like a waste of time and money.

[BattleTorn]

"‘Dick’ in an Xbox"

I love that song...

[Dirkster_Dude]

X-DickBox sounds cool, but not appropriate for Live.

[VonBraunschweigg]

Just say penis, and if your friend's name is Dick, call him Bob.

[Ninja_G_Aidan]

What if you put your Dick in a Box will you still get banned!

[travelguy2k]

Since many of the games we play have foul language (Battlefield 4 has lots of bad language in it). I'm not sure why they would be so strict about the language we use. Also, they should be able to use the parental controls to filter out any questionable posts, instead of using the ban hammer.

Only Microsoft/Sony and their developers can use foul language on the system. Kinda a double standard.

I have a PS4, but the same will probably apply across both platforms.

[Dirkster_Dude]

Unless he was using a shortened form of the word "Richard" then his butt should be banned. I am absolutely tired of the profanity and crassness and absolute childishness of every person I talk to or communicate with on X-Box Live unless they are my personal friends. If the gaming community wants to be seen as mainstream and grown up then this type of conversation no matter how small or large needs to stop. I don't know about other places in the world, but saying something like this on TV without any context it is considered profanity and the TV station can be fined millions for it. Why should it be acceptable in this case? The only reason is if he was referring to a person named "Richard" in his shortened name form.

[ManaByte]

Someone else banned because of Skype:
https://twitter.com/getB3NT...

It's happening...

[ShowGun901]

M$ can suck my dick

BANNED

Totally worth it

[Software_Lover]

People love jumping on stuff before it's confirmed.

This community is what drives these opinion and rumor blogs as facts.

People curse all the time on skype calls. Pretty worse stuff than dick. Yet, it still works for them.

yeah, wait until the facts come out.

[Petebloodyonion]

OMG! another pro MS article by the objective writer(complainer) of Furiousfanboy Jeremy Conrad!

I must confess I was wrong in my last post! I thought that he would write a article about how MS lied and twist the number about the million consoles sold and instead he wrote this masterpiece.

Well here's my prediction for Jeremy Conrad non bias pro MS-Article # 3002
The Xbox one apparently scratch BLuray discs after multiple usage in the drive.

[GravelerMagnitude9]

Dick Dickens is my name kind sir

[chaosdemon09]

What a "dick" move xbone.. Seriously though that's scary if its true.

[farqy]

Isn't Dick actually a name short for Richard or something?

[aesmith1988]

Microshaft!

[ziratul]

Clock: Tick Tock Tick Tock
XBOX ONE: DICK?????

BANNEEEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NeloAnjelo]

This is what you get for buying XBONEs!

Be DICKtated to!

[BobBelcher]

update:
http://n4g.com/news/1401272...

[TXIDarkAvenger]

This is probably untrue.

Wouldn't we assume that this would be far more widespread if xbox live actually banned people for cursing? It must have been some other issue.

Here is more info afterwards. The banned user also stated "I should state beforehand that I have no proof that I was banned for profanity."

UPDATE 1: Okay I got a hold of a Microsoft representative. They've told me that my standing is "good" and don't see an issue with my account - I'm in "good standing." However, he said that there may be some issues with Skype and Upload Studio, which matches what others have been saying. There are apparently steps being made to reverse the bans. If I find anymore info, I'll post it, and if anyone finds anything else, just PM me and I'll put it up here.

UPDATE 2: I hopped on Upload Studio about twenty minutes ago and tried it out. It is now working for me, and I was successfully able to upload my Kinect footage and DVR footage to both Xbox and SkyDrive. It appears as though the Upload Studio suspension is a 24 hour suspension, as I believe it was for me. However, Skype still does not respond after five hours since the "incident." This is my experience with Skype: "Was typing to my buddy on Skype, typed a few words of profanity talking about movies, and when I jumped back to Xbox One, it said I was banned from it for the same reason, citing "past behavior"."

[Software_Lover]

It won't work.

Social Media makes it true and people skipped over all of the evidence that states otherwise. No one will apologize for incorrect statements or false accusations.

Nice job reading though. Bubble up.

[Bryan574]

lol yea no surveillance here. 1984

[toddybad]

This won't be a popular view but as somebody with a small child who manages to find a way to watch Youtube videos and other stuff I have tried to block, I think it's about time the gaming community was made to act responsibly online. There are too many people playing non-adult games shouting adult abuse online. They should be stopped so I support any efforts to do so.

[bu3ouf91]

Good job Microsoft spy on us :D

[nooneknows]

What is my name is "James Dick."

[Gamerita]

actually this is a good thing because i have heard a lot about xbox live suffering from people with bad language.

[cell989]

goes to show just how good Kinect was designed to spy

I bet if you mentioned "bomb" "nuke" "terrorist" "airport" etc etc you get sent to a special dedicated server where the NSA keeps tabs on you

[modesign]

how am i suppose to play against dick cheney on COD.

[landhuman]

I doubt this has anything to do with spying.

Has anyone thought about the raw hours of labor that would be required to HUMANLY monitor thousands/millions of recordings? There is no way in hell.

The Kinect has voice recognition so this if this is real it's some kind of word-list based automatic flag.

[sonofmrpsychotic]

LOOOOOL

[STEWIE_PLAY_PS4]

Probably hi my name is dick!?. Maybe ban for person real name dick?.

[grantps3]

As somebody named Richard (AKA Dick) I find this to be potentially problematic.

[misterssippi]

This story has already been debunked. Just more fanboy lies and bullshit.

[Bonerboy]

About time....

[Evil Rant Monkey]

Interesting...

One of the characters from Dead Rising 3 happens to be named Dick.

Coincidence?

You play as Dick, if you've joined another player's game through co-op.

[HardcoreDaBoss]

This is why I wont buy this BullSSHHHH.. I already havean xbox 360, ps3, and wii, wii u... Im me and Im control of whatever I want to do on my gaming console. no one tells me what I can or cant do. and xbox can S a mean dk. and sony can too. if any of this is true then next gen is dead tooooo me and wii u and pc gaming is the future

[srd4484]

Why because you can't curse in Upload? Sorry if MS wants to keep it CLEAN.

[bazookasDAD]

So I'm not going to be able to subscribe to the Dick Butkus hour and listen to him belch on about sacking dudes with balls in their hands?

[mk4002]

They should make a slick ad ala Dreamcast with a person who whispers at the end "It's listening"

[jah-Fu]

Even though they don't monitor p2p conversations. People who want to believe it will think its true anyway.

[JunioRS101]

I'm really curious to know when humanity will realize that "curse words" are one of the silliest, illusory facets of civilized culture.

Lol, you can say truck, buck, ditch, glitch, spam, cram, pick, stick... but if you say those OTHER words, ooooh boy.

"You're not allowed to project those sounds from your mouth!!"

Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck. Bitch bitch bitch.

Aren't we being a little too sensitive? Lol

[PickAShoe]

Just when your name is Dick is already hard enough, kinect wants to ban them. shame

[kornbeaner]

If you bought an XBone this is your future.

[Fringe_Agent13]

This can't be real...

[srd4484]

Bad - MS banning people when using profanity while using Upload.

Good - Sony allowing people to put on strip shows using the camera and twitch.

ok.

[Lykon]

MS disgust me

[tsn]

How are people even remotely suprised here?

Microsoft bought skype.

XBone is Always ON

XBone cannot play with out kinect

Kinect is ready at all time.

It was clear from the start what Microsoft intentions were from the start.

Open your eyes.

[SITH]

Even the original poster acknowledged on reddit he does not know if it was a ban or just a problem on microsoft's side. Hell I just got an achievement in dead rising 3 labeled, "Dick."

[JuniorCE]

Half of the xbox gamers are going to return their xbone lol

[saber00005]

Hate to be one of the guys who's name is actually Dick.. I'll have to ask my friend what he thinks of this..

[DOOMZ]

FALSE, did it, NOTHING... There are censor settings on the system, jeez!