An Apex Legends player went viral and sparked debate after sharing his permanent ban from all EA games, caused by a chat message that EA deemed a violation of its harassment rules.
In a Reddit post on November 19, user THEVAN3D shared his ban message, which shows EA issuing a permanent ban on his account, after discovering that he had typed ‘stfu’ in the Apex Legends chat.
The message read: “We consider this to be harassment. You can no longer play EA games on this account.”
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The post quickly gained traction and was soon shared on other subreddits and social media. The player confirmed that the ban meant he couldn’t access the EA app, making all of his other games unplayable.
EA issues permanent bans on Apex chat messages
As the post went viral, others shared similar experiences; However, it became clear that this permanent ban was the result of the accumulation of multiple temporary bans beforehand.
Although THEVAN3D claims that it has only been issued a previous ban, also for chat messages, others claimed that it was a three strikes system.
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Another player also revealed that they had been issued the same permanent ban of all EA games, after typing “Mfs trash” in the in-game chat. However, they confirmed that it had been their third attack of messages of this type.
However, THEVAN3D claims that this was only his second ban, with the previous one being a temporary suspension for writing ‘xtfu’, without the intended ‘stfu’.
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“(I had a) previous account suspension for the same reason,” they said. “The account is clean. I never used cheats or did anything else. I only said fuck a couple of times. And now I’m locked out of my account. not being able to access even single-player games.”
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EA requires all players to agree to its “positive play charter,” which essentially governs respect, cheating, inappropriate content, and the law:
- Treat others with respect – Our community is diverse. Everyone should feel like they belong.
- Keep things fair – Winning is much more satisfying based on your own abilities.
- Share clean content – Create and share things that are appropriate.
- Follow local laws – Keep it legal in our games and services, just like you would in real life.
In fact, EA claims that violating these rules could result in “restrictions on your account” or even “remove your access to certain or all EA Services.”
But many players feel that such a ban, which covers all EA games, is too harsh on messages like “stfu” or “mfs trash.” One player said: “Banning someone for saying ‘stfu’ is fucking ridiculous. The Apex community is soft.”
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Other argument, “However, saying stfu is not harassment.” EA clearly disagrees.
The banned player contacted EA support to appeal, but received a simple response: “After thoroughly investigating your account and your concern, we found that your account acted correctly and we will not remove this penalty from your account.”
Last year, players reported that they were being banned for using the name “Andrew Tate” as a username.