Microsoft has released its latest Xbox Transparency Report, detailing the enforcement actions it has taken to keep the Xbox online community safer. The full report, in PDF format, shows that from January to June 2023, Microsoft issued a total of 19.56 million moderation and safety enforcements. That"s nearly twice as many as the 10.19 million enforcements it issued from July to December 2022.
As with its previous reports, the vast majority of the enforcements were labeled as "proactive", meaning Microsoft"s technology could block the offending content before it could reach Xbox players. In Microsoft"s summary of the report, it stated:
To better measure our success, we’re now including a new dataset covering our work in this space called ‘Toxicity Prevented’. In this last period, over 4.7M pieces of content were blocked before reaching players, including a 135k increase (+39% from the last period) in imagery thanks to investments in utilizing the new Turing Bletchley v3 foundation model.
A vast majority of the enforcements that were issued during the last six-month period were due to cheating or false Xbox accounts.
Microsoft has been adding new features and refining its Xbox enforcement system over the past year. In June, it announced a new system designed to make it easier for Xbox players to record what it believes are offensive voice chats and send them to the company"s safety team.
In August, Microsoft announced a revamped Xbox Enforcement Strike System. It adds strikes to Xbox players when they are reported for violations to the company"s safety and moderation system. If a player receives enough strikes on their account they could face extended suspensions for up to a year on the Xbox service. Today Microsoft stated:
Early insights indicate that the majority of players do not violate the Community Standards after receiving an enforcement and engage positively with the community.
Microsoft has also launched Xbox Gaming Safety Toolkits for Japan and Singapore to give parents more information and guidance on keeping their children safe when they are online playing games on the Xbox service.