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Appeals Court Rules Being Muted In Game Chat Does Not Equal Discrimination

Accepted submission by Booga1 at 2020-01-25 06:46:14
Digital Liberty

Rock Paper Shotgun reports [rockpapershotgun.com]:

As reported by PennLive, [pennlive.com] the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit has affirmed the district court’s decision that a Pennsylvania man was not discriminated against by being “muted” in an online game.

Amro Elansari filed his original complaint against developer Jagex in July 2019, claiming they “violated his rights to free speech and due process of law.” The suit was dismissed by the district court, a decision that has now been upheld by the appeals court for the 3rd Circuit.

Elansari was “muted” in an unnamed online game in March of 2019, according to his “largely handwritten” complaint, says PennLive. Given his suit names Jagex and that Elansari “claimed he had 2,000 hours invested in the game when he was booted out,” it seems to follow that he had his account muted in some version of RuneScape.
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The appeals court says that Elansari has not named a “state actor” for his Fourteenth Amendment claim. His complaint under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was also dismissed with no evidence of a “public accommodations discrimination.”


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