• PlayStation Home: Restriction on Speech

    PlayStation Home: Restriction on Speech

    Techtree News Staff, Dec 31, 2008 1028 hrs IST

    Sony PlayStation Home has banned words such as 'gay', 'Jew', and 'bi-sexual' from their 3D virtual world service

    mail share

Sony has banned the use of certain words on their recently launched PlayStation Home 3D virtual world for PS3 users. Sony had recently pulled back the Voice chat feature with the excuse that they were going to provide better VoIP features. It's obvious that after the word usage ban, gamers might think that Sony is restricting their freedom of speech.

Michael Marsh, an 18-year-old gamer from Norwalk, told the San Francisco Chronicle that his words "gay", "lesbian", and "bi-sexual" were filtered from the text chat. He also wasn't allowed to name clubs as gay/straight alliance club.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America spokesperson Patrick Seybold told the San Francisco Chronicle, "The key message is it's a beta and it's evolving on a daily basis. We've said early on that user behavior and feedback will shape where we go with Home".

Critics believe that merely saying that the service is in the beta stage doesn't relieve Sony of their obligations to the consumers. The service needs to be open and censorship-free to evolve and become popular around the globe.

Follow Techtree on Twitter

Related Links
Diwali dhamaka: Phones under 10K
More Panels for Sony Ericsson Xperia
5K -12K: The Mad Mobile Market Segment
Tag keywords
Sony PlayStation Home PS3 gay Jew bi-sexual 3D virtual world Sony Computer Entertainment America San Francisco Chronicle gamer Norwalk lesbian VoIP chat



Opinion Poll