Marvel Rivals Chat Bans Can Now Last 365 Days, NetEase Confirms

Marvel Rivals chat bans can last up to 365 days, developer NetEase confirmed in an October 16 announcement that also launched a new public Moderation Policy page on the official Marvel Rivals site. A chat ban is a temporary account block that prevents a player from sending or receiving text and voice messages in-game. The policy covers text and voice chat, with “significantly harsher penalties” for severe or repeated offenses against insults, harassment, discrimination, and hate speech, the announcement said.

The new policy page also explains that NetEase’s system automatically scans voice channels and analyzes both what players say and its context, so punishment does not depend on other players filing a report. Text chat is monitored in real time, while player reports and manual reviews cover everything else. Repeated offenders can also be hit with long-term account suspensions that block login, the policy page says, putting a hard ceiling on what the worst speech-related violation can cost.

The October 16 announcement follows a September backlash that began after players noticed the “hate speech” option had quietly disappeared from the voice and text chat report menus, replaced with broader labels such as “toxic content” and “inappropriate language.” Outrage grew after streamer Silky was reportedly called a racial slur in a match, and several creators said they were leaving the game. NetEase did not publicly address the report-menu change at the time, and the October 16 announcement does not mention it either; it simply asks players to keep using the in-game report function. Marvel Rivals is a 6v6 hero shooter, a multiplayer game where two teams of six pick from a roster of Marvel superheroes and villains to fight over objectives.

Earlier in 2026, NetEase rolled out a separate thrower-punishment system that refunds lost rank points, plus permanent bans for players caught farming stats while standing still. The new 365-day ceiling applies specifically to speech violations. NetEase is also working with Disney on a separate Marvel-related title delayed earlier this year; see our coverage of the crossover shooter delay and the Marvel Tokon DLC roadmap for context on how NetEase handles its Marvel slate.

NetEase landing on a full-year ceiling signals the studio is treating hate speech as a competitive-integrity issue rather than a courtesy one, which is consistent with how the game’s September controversy played out: creators publicly exiting, not just complaining. The trade-off is that the same announcement doesn’t address the September report-menu removal, so the policy page lists what gets punished but the in-game tool to flag hate speech is still missing. For players, the practical question is whether the automatic voice screening catches what manual reports cannot, since that is now where most enforcement will happen. Our E-Day DDoS confirmation and the FF14 24-hour maintenance post sit in our news-desk archive of how live-service studios have rolled out the same enforcement playbook: update the rules page, let the support channel do the rest.

Sources: NetEase official Speech Moderation and Penalties announcement on MarvelRivals.com, Marvel Rivals Moderation Policy page, FRVR original report citing the October 16 announcement, GamesRadar+ coverage, 16Bit World coverage, NeuraBoost summary.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report