Is fake reporting someone against ToS?

Flaaklypa

So ,
some of my real life friends decided to pull a "prank" on me, and reported me for being racist and homophobic full well knowing it is not true. They did it simply to get a laugh (they did it over voice chat, with me included in the voice talk, had a laugh and moved on) say what you want, but they are my friends and i have no bad thoughts against them, and i know they didnt really mean anything bad about it. but it got me thinking, is this form of falsely reporting someone allowed? It can very much be viewed as a form of harrassment, and It shouldnt really be allowed to report people left and right if you know you do it without proof/knowing its not true.

The likelyhood of me being banned when i know its not true is very low, close to 0% actually, so i guess it doesnt really matter at the end of the day.

Mindcr0w

I can't imagine that it wouldn't be against tos.

I'd expect making provably false claims could result in action taken against the one making them.

Gaggin

I dont know, but I did just report you. Try not to be so racist and homophobic next time.

SeaGtGruff

Knowingly making a false accusation against someone of something, even if it's a friend and is meant to be a "prank," could have serious repercussions, and for that reason is a really dumb thing to do, whether in a game or in real life.

People say that puns are the lowest form of humor. Personally, I think "pranks" are far lower than puns. Some pranks can be harmless, but a lot of people act like they don't have any common sense in determining when a "prank" has crossed the line.

Glurin

If it's not, it probably should be.

Also, I wouldn't be too sure that nothing will come from false reports. Not with the cancel culture being what it is right now. Particularly since many companies have had to resort to automation to deal with the deluge of people submitting reports for everything from outright racist hate speech to "he said something that this one guy in South Dakota might possibly find offensive if he ever saw what was said."

Dracane

Getting banned for something someone claims about you, without having proof of it, is at best laughable.
If no chats or screenshots of you exist being said thing, then I would be very surprised if something happened.

And if I was the support, I would be skeptical, since stuff like that is quite easy to fake I think.

Flaaklypa

Dracane wrote: »

Getting banned for something someone claims about you, without having proof of it, is at best laughable.
If no chats or screenshots of you exist being said thing, then I would be very surprised if something happened.

And if I was the support, I would be skeptical, since stuff like that is quite easy to fake I think.

this is my thought as well.

idk

It is clearly harassment to knowingly make a false report on another player. If they are friends then Zos would likely let that pass this time. However, knowingly make multiple false reports would more likely push Zos to take action against the accusers. Even if they are friends doing the reports time and again Zos will eventually get tired of having their time wasted. In extreme cases, companies have banned players for being problematic, sometimes lifetime bans. For a GaaS, a ban is really their only form of punishment for harassment.

In other words, they should avoid repeating that behavior in the future.

Danikat

Point 2.11 of the Code of Conduct says:

"Deliberately contravening a request or action by a member of the ZeniMax staff is not permitted at any time. Additionally, improper use of the in-game support or complaint buttons or making false reports to ZeniMax staff members is forbidden. You may not intentionally submit misinformation or abuse the help system in any ZeniMax Service."

So it's unclear what the penalty would be, but it is against the rules. I suspect for a first offense or something which is obviously a joke they would simply ignore it, but if someone keeps on doing it they may get in trouble.

I know players in other games have been banned for abusing the report system, but all the examples I'm aware of were pretty extreme. For example someone telling everyone in all their guilds to report the person leading a group in PvP for harrassment, hoping to get enough reports to trigger a tempoary ban while the mods investigated, just because the guy starting this didn't like the leader's tactics and wanted to take over as group leader. Or someone who reported every single player they saw using a particular class for hacking, just because they thought it was OP and shouldn't be allowed.

idk

@Danikat

Thanks for providing the specific information related to this topic. I am not surprised to hear players have been banned in other games for abusing their reporting system as it is a waste of time and money investigating frivolous and false reports. A ban, even for a short duration, is really the only course of action a GaaS has in a situation like this. However, I expect situations like that are rare. Hopefully.