EA Restores Account After Banning Player For Typing STFU

Toxicity in chats of online multiplayer games has become all too common these days and many players end up crossing a line – but is STFU enough to get your EA account banned permanently? That’s exactly what happened with a player who shared their experience on Reddit.

Player Loses Access to All EA Games After Saying STFU in Apex Legends Chat

With the title “Do other game platforms also ban you for saying “stfu” in online chat? Or is it just EA that’s so sensitive?” the player shared a screenshot of a mail by EA that says:

Source: u/THEVAN3D on Reddit

[bs-quote quote=”It looks like your EA account broke the rules in our Positive Play Charter. Your EA account is banned. Here’s why – “STFU” – we consider this to be harassment. You can no longer play EA games on this account. We have removed your payment details from our system so you won’t get any more charges from us.” style=”default” align=”center” color=”” author_name=”” author_job=”” author_avatar=”” author_link=””][/bs-quote]

This post blew up on Reddit, receiving 11.7K upvotes and 2.8k comments.

Source: Reddit

The top comment asks if all their games are inaccessible now, including single-player games, and the OP replied that they can’t even log into the EA app and are unable to play all of the EA games.

In my opinion, STFU is certainly a rude message to type via chat and the player should be admonished for the same, but removing access to their entire EA library is quite a stretch.

EA can restrict the player’s access to Apex Legends or ban them from its in-game chat, the game they were violating the rules for speech in, but due to this, they are now unable to play any other EA game they like. Similar sentiments were echoed by other players in the comment section.

There’s a chance that this permaban is for a repeat offense because EA won’t take such an action for a first-timer. OP has mentioned in comments that have had a suspension before regarding the same phrase.

Here are some more community reactions:

Source: Reddit

Source: Reddit

Source: Reddit

Player Gets Account Back after Contacting Support & Post Goes Viral

Source: u/THEVAN3D on Reddit

In an update provided by the OP, who has contacted Support, EA has replied to them with this message:

[bs-quote quote=”Hello,
Thank you for contacting us regarding the action that was taken on your account. Your concern led to a full investigation of your account. After reviewing your case, we found your concerns valid and justified. We will make sure to prevent this in the future. We appreciate your help and understanding in this matter.” style=”default” align=”center” color=”” author_name=”” author_job=”” author_avatar=”” author_link=””][/bs-quote]

Now, the ban has been lifted, the account has been restored and OP can log into EA.com again. All the games are there, they can purchase new ones and have access to all the old ones.

It’s possible that the viral Reddit post had a lot to do with the investigation of the account since many media portals also shared this story.

Speaking of EA, they quietly removed a multiplayer shooter game from sale after stopping its updates years ago.