Xbox Transparency Report Reveals Up To 4.78 Million Accounts Were Proactively Suspended In Just Six Months (theverge.com) 10
Microsoft has released its first Digital Transparency Report for the Xbox gaming platform, revealing that the company took proactive action against throwaway accounts that violated its community guidelines 4.78 million times within a six-month period, usually in the form of temporary suspension. The Verge reports: The report, which provides information regarding content moderation and player safety, covers the period between January 1st and June 30th this year. It includes a range of information, including the number of reports submitted by players and breakdowns of various "proactive enforcements" (i.e., temporary account suspensions) taken by the Xbox team. Microsoft says the report forms part of its commitment to online safety. The data reveals that "proactive enforcements" by Microsoft increased almost tenfold since the last reporting period and that 4.33 million of the 4.78 million total enforcements concerned accounts that had been tampered with or used suspiciously outside of the Xbox platform guidelines. These unauthorized accounts can impact players in a variety of ways, from enabling cheating to spreading spam and artificially inflating friend / follower numbers.
A further breakdown of the data reveals 199,000 proactive enforcements taken by Xbox involving adult sexual content, 87,000 for fraud, and 54,000 for harassment or bullying. The report also claims that 100 percent of all actions in the last six-month period relating to account tampering, piracy, and phishing were taken proactively by Xbox rather than via reports made by its player base, which suggests that either fewer issues are being reported by players or the issues themselves are being addressed before players are aware of them. As proactive action has increased, the report also reveals that reports made by players have decreased significantly despite a growing player base, noting a 36 percent decline in player reports compared to the same period in 2021. A total of 33.07 million reports were made by players during the last period, with the vast majority relating to either in-game conduct (such as cheating, teamkilling, or intentionally throwing a match) or communications.
A further breakdown of the data reveals 199,000 proactive enforcements taken by Xbox involving adult sexual content, 87,000 for fraud, and 54,000 for harassment or bullying. The report also claims that 100 percent of all actions in the last six-month period relating to account tampering, piracy, and phishing were taken proactively by Xbox rather than via reports made by its player base, which suggests that either fewer issues are being reported by players or the issues themselves are being addressed before players are aware of them. As proactive action has increased, the report also reveals that reports made by players have decreased significantly despite a growing player base, noting a 36 percent decline in player reports compared to the same period in 2021. A total of 33.07 million reports were made by players during the last period, with the vast majority relating to either in-game conduct (such as cheating, teamkilling, or intentionally throwing a match) or communications.
Throwaway accounts? (Score:2)
Aren't these accounts tied to specific hardware?
Re:Throwaway accounts? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Redundant)
> usually with a cracking or pre-pubescent voice telling me they were going to fuck my mom.
Did you even ask your mom if she was interested. At least give the younger generation a chance before you shut them down, sir.
Re: Throwaway accounts? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You can sort of interface with Xbox users through the PC, in which case you're dealing with generic Microsoft accounts. That may be the case with some of these. But banning PC cheaters from games is outside of Microsoft's power in most cases.
Re: (Score:2)
Do Microsoft still ban the console? Some years ago they would ban the console as well as the account, to prevent new ones being made. It was a pain for anyone wanting to buy a used one, and other account holders in the same household.
But there are only 2.6 million XBoxes?! (Score:2)
So how can each XBox have 2 accounts?
This sounds like fraud.
Re: (Score:3)
So how can each XBox have 2 accounts? This sounds like fraud.
I have five accounts on my xbox, one for each family member.