Even those totally removed from the Minecraft social scene may have spotted #SaveMinecraft slowly climbing up Twitter’s trending topics. Unlike the recent #SaveTF2 campaign, this hashtag asks for less involvement from Minecraft developer Mojang, not more.
Earlier this year, Mojang announced their plans to create an official, in-game reporting system for Minecraft. This decision was met with immediate backlash, with players concerned about the vagueness of the reportable topics list, in-game context being lost, and of course, automatic AI moderation. It’s unclear just how out of the loop Mojang was with their initial plans, or if it was simply a matter of poor communication, but regardless, the chat reporting feature was delayed just over a month. It was finally added to the game on July 27th, 2022.
This is when #SaveMinecraft really began. That initial concern hasn’t subsided — quite the opposite. Players are furious that after over 10 years of unfettered play and chat, and despite buckets of backlash, Mojang has gone ahead with player reporting. It’s understandable. Just last week, Fanbyte News Editor Imran Khan was falsely banned from Twitter after uploading a video of a glitch from Stray. The reason for the ban cited was nonsensical, the report appeared to be automatic, and even working with a human moderator was a hassle.
That being said, there’s also a lot of misinformation regarding player reporting in Minecraft. As poorly as they may have communicated initially, Mojang have put out a very lengthy, in-depth FAQ explaining how their reporting system will (and won’t) work. Let’s look over everything important you need to know about player reporting in Minecraft.
How player reporting in Minecraft works — Human moderation, mass reporting, and more
- There are no bots monitoring or moderating chats
- You cannot be banned without being reviewed by a human moderator
- Moderators will be trained specifically for Minecraft and understand in-game context
- You can appeal your ban with another human moderator
- This affects both public and private servers, as well as Realms
- Bans can be either temporary or permanent
- Your account will be banned from all multiplayer servers and Realms across all past, current, and future versions of Minecraft
- You will still be able to play single-player
- Reporters must select at least one specific chat message to go along with their report
- Surrounding chat messages will be provided in the report as additional context
- Mojang does not monitor or censor chat
- Chat messages are only shown to Mojang within a report
- Reporters are not anonymous to Mojang
- Mass reporting shouldn’t work, as a large volume of reports is not considered as evidence
- Frequent false reports may lead to temporary or permanent bans
Things you can’t get banned for in Minecraft:
- You cannot be banned for cussing or swearing in Minecraft
- You cannot be banned for talking about suicide
- You may be reported to Mojang for threats of self-harm or suicide, but this is not a bannable offense. Mojang will reach out to provide support resources.
It’s important to note that nothing Mojang listed as a reason for report is new. All player report categories have been included in Minecraft’s EULA and Microsoft’s Terms of Use.
Here’s everything that can get you banned in Minecraft:
- Hate speech
- Threat to harm others
- Harassment or bullying
- Terrorism or violent extremism
- Child sexual exploitation or abuse
- Non-consensual intimate imagery
- Defamation, impersonation, false information
- Encouragement of illegal drug-related activities or underaged drinking
