Bungie bans toxic commenters from Destiny 2 after first Into the Light stream

Bungie has banned the Destiny 2 accounts of participants in the tirade of toxic and hate-filled comments that underscored the first Into the Light livestream. 

While the stream showcased a free update offering the horde mode players had long begged for, the Twitch chat quickly became awash with racist, homophobic, and otherwise vile remarks. Then, after one developer inadvertently showed their Steam username, a flood of friend requests began to appear on stream, most with equally racist or otherwise toxic public-facing handles.

The internet is no stranger to toxicity, but the Destiny community has a history of acting out. Bungie previously had to reduce community communication as a direct result of harassment and abuse. This included death threats and racial slurs, often communicated to Bungie employees via their unlisted personal phone numbers and emails.

Of course, Bungie and the Destiny 2 community don’t always see eye to eye on everything. However, this seems to be the latest example of the toxic side of the Destiny community rearing its head.

How did Bungie respond to the toxic Destiny 2 stream behavior?

Responding to a post on Reddit, Bungie immediately commented on the racist and toxic behavior during the first Into the Light livestream. Bungie said, “It was disappointing to see those notifications, but we know they were from a few awful individuals and not reflective of the community at large.”

The studio followed up by noting that it had already identified some of the bad actors involved and promptly banned them from Destiny 2. Bungie also added that after this incident, efforts will be made to ensure that a situation like this can’t happen again. Bungie noted, “We are taking extra measures to make sure this doesn’t happen again and look forward to sharing more info with you all in next week’s stream.”