After the scandal with the photo of Atatürk, the Hearts of Iron 4 Discord server banned avatars of any politicians born after 1800
Paradox Interactive has introduced a new rule for the Hearts of Iron 4 Discord server that bans members from using photos of real political and military figures born after January 1, 1800 as profile pictures. The only exception is official in-game portraits, though prominent leaders of Nazi Germany stay off-limits in any form.
The decision followed a scandal that erupted last week, when a user was banned for using a photograph of Republic of Turkey founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as an avatar. The original post is no longer available, since Paradox restricted access to the server and deleted some threads.
According to angry players, the moderator described Atatürk as a "controversial" figure, citing his "disputed involvement" in the Armenian genocide of 1913-1922. Hearts of Iron 4 still lacks official Turkish language support, which had already frustrated part of the community and made the situation worse.
Over the past week, Paradox games have been hit by several waves of negative Steam reviews, apparently in response to the ban. Paradox also logged a large number of threats and insults aimed at its developers and moderators.
Hearts of Iron 4 game director Laszlo Pieper apologized for the inconsistent enforcement of rules on profile images of real statespeople.
"We understand what Atatürk means to many of you, as the founder of the Republic of Türkiye and father of the nation. I want to clarify that neither our games nor our moderation are intended as a comment or judgement on any historical figure, and this is no exception."
Pieper added that player complaints pushed the team to rethink the existing rules.
"Many of you have written to us in the past days about this and our Discord rules and moderation of historical profile pictures: one of our rules concerns the use of real-world persons as profile pictures. The messages and subsequent discussion we've had following this have made it clear that there are concerns about how we enforce our rules, and especially whether this is done in an equal and fair manner. Following these discussions, it's become clear this rule needs to be revised and has not been enforced consistently."
In a follow-up post, the game director explained that the original rule was never meant to invite debate over which historical figures are acceptable.
"The rule at the heart of this incident was not designed for discussion or interpretation on what historical figures are allowed, or to open questions on what should be a straightforward server guideline. This should have been prevented, and we failed."
According to Pieper, the new 1800 cut-off should take the burden of subjective decisions off moderators.
"The aim here is to ensure our guidelines leave no room for ambiguity, nor edge cases in the future, hence the clear cut-off."
As of publication, the rule has not formally taken effect. Once it does, server members will have seven days to bring their avatars in line with the new requirements.
Going by the wording, the official in-game Atatürk portrait from Hearts of Iron 4 will remain allowed after the rule goes live. Pieper also said Paradox has seen a wave of threats directed at its staff.
"We have seen a very troubling volume of abuse and even open threats directed at us, our developers, our moderators, and even others outside of Paradox."
Pieper clarified that anyone banned for threats and abuse during this conflict will stay banned even after the new rule comes into force.
