Microsoft's Toulouse explains why swastikas are banned on Xbox Live

[Chaos Raiden]

An Xbox Live user recently inquired to professional banhammer-wielder Stephen Toulouse whether or not he could use a swastika as his Call of Duty: Black Ops emblem, to which Toulouse responded, "No, of course you can't, we'll ban you." Apparently, this sparked quite a reaction from gamers who witnessed the exchange, who defended the use of a swastika as a symbol widely used throughout several Eastern religions. In a post on his personal blog, Toulouse explained why this argument doesn't hold much water with the Xbox Live moderation crew.

"Let's be clear: no educated human on the planet looks at the swastika symbol ... and says 'oh, that symbol has nothing at all in any way to do with global genocide of an entire race,'" Toulouse stated, "'and, even if it did, one should totally and reasonably ignore that because it's a symbol that was stolen or coop-ted from religions.'" He succinctly adds, "If you think the swastika symbol should be re-evaluated by societies all over the Earth, I think that's great. Your Xbox Live profile or in game logo, which doesn't have the context to explain your goal, is not the right place to do that."

We certainly know that every time we see someone use the swastika as their identifier on an online game, our first thought is, "Oh, how nice, they're pushing for a global re-evaluation of the meaning of the swastika." Like, that's just common sense, isn't it?

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/22/microsofts-toulouse-explains-why-swastikas-are-banned-on-xbox-l/

 

[GamblingGambitCloud]

kinda retarded when you think about it..first of all..if you're playing a WAR game and want to use a swastika, it's pretty clear why....on the other hand...if Nazis had used a cross instead of a swastika, would that mean all crosses would be banned from Xbox Live?

 

[Dark Drakan]

kinda retarded when you think about it..first of all..if you're playing a WAR game and want to use a swastika, it's pretty clear why....on the other hand...if Nazis had used a cross instead of a swastika, would that mean all crosses would be banned from Xbox Live?

If people can get arrested in some places for doing a Nazi salute and has caused outrage with some people for doing so then people should use some common sense. Did no-one remember when Prince Harry wore a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party in the UK? It caused a major issue worldwide with countries laying into him, the Swastika was the symbol of it all and has been banned for use for many years in lots of places.

 

[Esura]

Japanese people still use the manji symbol, an inverse swatstika (technically the swatstika is an inverse manji symbol lol) in many animes. Tenhjo Tenge has it, actually alot of their martial art animes have it in Japan, just in a subtle way.

However, the symbol, no matter how its displayed or portrayed, erks people. Its going to take many years for people to forget about it, if people ever would (not the Holocaust...doi, just the Nazi's distorted meaning of the symbol).

 

[DeviRyuuD]

This is quite absurd, because the swastika originally symbolizes something else, depending on the culture that uses it. For example;

Baltic culture:

The swastika is one of the most common symbols used throughout Baltic art. In Latvian the symbol is known as either Ugunskrusts, the "Fire cross" (rotating counter-clockwise), or Pērkonkrusts, the "Thunder cross" (rotating clock-wise), and was mainly associated with Pērkons, the god of Thunder and justice. It was also occasionally related to the Sun, as well as Dievs (the god of creation), Laima (the goddess of destiny and fate). The swastika is featured on many distaffs, dowry chests, cloths and other items. It is most intricately developed in woven belts.

These swastikas, all of them, had different forms the way they`re portrayed, and the 3rd Reich swastika is just one of these - the red background and the white circle in which stands the black swastika. Why just not ban the red, white, black one? What did the rest of them do to anyone? Heck even the native Americans used the symbol. I`m not using swastikas myself, but this is bullocks.

 

[Dark Drakan]

These swastikas, all of them, had different forms the way they`re portrayed, and the 3rd Reich swastika is just one of these - the red background and the white circle in which stands the black swastika. Why just not ban the red, white, black one? What did the rest of them do to anyone? Heck even the native Americans used the symbol. I`m not using swastikas myself, but this is bullocks.

Maybe so but no-one remembers them for anything good and only remember the stereotypical one and the people that used it and what they did.