Player wasn't discriminated against by being muted in an online game, US court says

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Being muted in game isn’t a civil rights violation.

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 ofRuneScape.

According toRuneScape’s support website, muted accounts are unable to “chat normally inRuneScapeor post on our forums” but can still play the game and read the forums. Elansari originally appealed his account restriction with Jagex and was denied. In theiropinion published January 22nd, the appeals court writes that Elansari claims he was discriminated against.

Elansari insists that defendant Jagex should be liable for “unequal treatment” because Elansari’s account was “muted . . . compared to all other players who are not muted.”

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.”

PennLive reports that this is hardly a first for Elansari, who has a litigious streak. “Court records show Elansari has filed 10 lawsuits in U.S. Eastern District Court in last year and a half. He lodged four of them, including the Jagex suit, in July 2019 alone,” they say.