Riot Games: League of Legends chat filter no longer bans word ‘Uyghur’

Riot Games says a chat filter in the League of Legends game is no longer banning the English word for “Uyghur.” Players noted that the game’s client automatically censored the word when typing this name of a Muslim minority in China.

On Reddit, several League of Legends players noted that the English-language ‘Uyghur’ was automatically censored. A user had ‘Uyghur’ as a subtitle under his username, but it turned out to be changed to ‘Uyhgur’ within seconds. Incidentally, ‘Uyghurs’ was not adapted.

Ryan Rigney, Head of Communications at League of Legends, gave to that this would be looked into and that it would be ‘ridiculous and absurd to hide the name of an ethnic group’. On Reddit, he stated that he finds it total nonsense to deliberately ban the name of an ethnic group. He soon came up with an update in which he says that this particular case has now been resolved. Rigney says that in the coming weeks, the wordlists and phrases hidden by the filter will be looked at and adjustments made where necessary. He states in response that the automated system is malfunctioning.

Curiously, the Reddit thread denouncing this topic also mentioned a takedown. The very first post where a user reported “Uyghur” being banned from the League of Legends client was removed in its entirety by a moderator for violating the subreddit’s rules. An explanation states that “claims about or against particular entities must be backed by evidence or sources and presented in an unbiased manner.”

Riot Games is wholly owned by Chinese investment company Tencent, which also invested $150 million in Reddit early this year.