Thanks to social media, toxic fandom has always been more prevalent. While they thrive in multiplayer spaces, toxic fans can exist on any side of the internet—as long as the franchise is popular enough.
Each studio has its own tactics for dealing with toxic fans online, but the Final Fantasy developers have seemingly taken a stand against anyone harassing their collaborators and employees.
Square Enix vs. Toxic Fans
In a recent post, Square Enix addressed some of the harassment its employees and partners have been receiving via its support centers. They wrote, “Such actions not only prevent our employees and partners from engaging in their work with a sense of security but also cause disruptions to other customers. Square Enix will not tolerate harassment and will take action as necessary.”
According to the announcement, anyone participating in what Square has qualified as harassment will most likely be banned from getting any customer support (and may be banned for consuming Square Enix products). The official statement reads:
“Should Square Enix determine that an individual has engaged in an action against one of our employees or partners that exceeds socially acceptable behavior or is harmful, we reserve our right to cease providing support services or to refrain from providing our group's products and services.”
What is Considered Harassment
Admittedly, the statement regarding how they will implement their punishment is vague. Still, they do have a clear-cut definition of harassment and undue demand. Here’s their official list of provisions:
Harassment:
- Acts of violence, violent behavior
- Abusive language, intimidation, coercion, duress, excessive pursuit or reprimand
- Defamation/slander, denial of personality, personal attack (including email, contact in contact form, comment, or post on the internet), advance notice of wrongdoing, advance notice of obstruction of business
Persistent inquiries, repeated visits - Trespassing by visiting or staying in an office or related facility without permission
- Unlawful restraint, including via telephone calls and online inquiries
- Discriminatory speech and conduct regarding race, ethnicity, religion, family origin, occupation, etc.
- Infringement of privacy by taking pictures or making video recordings without consent
- Sexual harassment, stalking, repeated stalking behavior
Undue demand:
- Unreasonable changes or exchange of product or request for monetary compensation
- Unreasonable response or request for an apology (including face-to-face response or request for an apology specifying the position of our employee or partners)
- Excessive requests for the provision of products and services exceeding the socially accepted norm
- Unreasonable and excessive demands for punishment of our employees
While Square didn’t provide specific examples of harassment against its employees, fans can go to any online forum to see what kind of harassment Square is trying to address.
Though it’s very common for fans to fight over characters and their favorite ‘ships,’ some fans have extra time on their hands and feel the need to harass actors on social media and relentlessly say threatening things to them over the actions of make-believe characters.
For example, Briana White, who voices Aerith in the FF7 remake, has commented on toxic shippers online who get intense about the game’s love triangle.
Wait and See
It’s still unclear exactly how Square plans to implement this rule, but at least they are setting a precedent for other studios to protect their actors should they be harassed by the fandom.
Naughty Dog barely did anything when Laura Bailey was getting harassed for her role as Abby in The Last of Us, and outside of games, Disney has been getting bashed for actively not doing anything about toxic fans when they start acting racist towards actresses online like Kelly Marie Tran and Moses Ingram.