In Minecraft 1.19.1, Microsoft introduced a chat reporting feature that affects players on all types of servers, both in Realms and privately owned servers. This feature was snuck into a pre-release version of Minecraft without any announcement, and is an unsolicited fix to a non-existent problem, and can cause more problems than it resolves. Essentially, players can report anything said on a private server and if Microsoft determines that the chat message violates their new chat policy, the player can be banned from playing on any Minecraft server, whether it be Realms or privately owned, ever again.

Since Java Minecraft servers have been available to the public, private server owners and teams have been moderating the ongoing of their servers as they see fit without any outside influence. This has allowed the online Minecraft community to become what it is today: A diverse plethora of servers that allow players to interact with like-minded individuals in servers where their values are sanctified.

To introduce such a controversial feature is to undermine the foundation of these communities. Private communities should remain privately moderated. Of course, things that are said in some servers may offend players, especially if it goes unmoderated. However it should then be up to that player to make the decision to find another server to play on where such things are not allowed, instead of forcing the rest of the community in question to cater to their values.

This also undermines the concept of free speech. While private companies such as Microsoft have the right to moderate speech on their platforms as they see fit, what we are allowed to do is not always the best option. By enforcing Microsoft's standards for speech, private communities are effectively stripped of their ability to speak freely. Types of speech should be moderated on a granular level, instead of blanket moderation on millions of players. Some servers may allow certain types of language depending on the type of players that are in their communities, as well as the comfort level of those players. For instance, a private server that is restricted to an adult age group may decide to allow derogatory language if the majority of those players are comfortable with the language being used, while a private server that is open for anyone to join may decide to restrict the use of such language in an effort to garner as many players as possible while keeping chat clean, respectful, and appropriate. However, when the rules of the later are breached, it should remain the responsibility of the private community's moderation team to issue punishments.

There is also a high probability of this feature being abused by players who receive punishments from private moderators. Millions of players have multiple accounts which could be used to re-join a private server and start reporting the chat messages of those moderators to Microsoft in order to exact revenge upon the private moderation team.

Such a feature also complicates the handling of punishments on the granular level. Players that have once been banned by the private moderation team and have now been unbanned may still be unable to join if that player has been banned by Microsoft. This can also lead to confusion and anger from players who have been banned by Microsoft when a private moderation team tells them that they cannot unban them because they did not ban them in the first place.

We, the global Minecraft community, are calling on Microsoft to remove this feature and restore power and control over private servers to the private communities. This feature is invasive, terribly implemented, and unnecessary. It is clear overreach from Microsoft and showcases a lack of transparency between Microsoft and their customers due to the way it was implemented as quietly as possible. At the bare minimum, private communities should have the option to opt out of this feature.

Until such time that the chat reporting feature is removed, we call on server operators to take any of the following actions:

• DO NOT upgrade your servers to 1.19.1
• Operate your servers in offline mode so that player identities are not checked against Microsoft's authentication servers
• Utilize plugins or server JARs that strip the cryptographic signatures that are tied to each chat message which will effectively make it impossible for Microsoft to track and associate chat messages