[Update: False reports penalized] COD: Modern Warfare 2 'broken report option' reportedly causing 'false ban' on legit players

Here’s the crux of the article in video form:

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on December 7, 2022) follows:

COD: Modern Warfare 2 is now fully up and running for a fair few weeks now. Developers have exceeded expectations with graphical innovations, all-new gun handling, and a new map.

However, the game has not been without problems. Players have been facing issues like ‘Riot shield’ being broken or overpowered and game chat not working or broken.

According to reports, COD: Modern Warfare 2 gamers are facing an issue where several players are abusing the report feature (1,2,3,4).

Players appear to be abusing this feature by falsely reporting legitimate player accounts in retaliation for defeating or killing them during the match.

The affected accounts are placed in an ‘Account Under Review’ state, where gamers can do nothing except wait to see if their status clears or changes to a temporary or permanent suspension.

Therefore as a result of this issue, legitimate players are forced to participate in shadow-ban lobbies. So, players must wait longer for a match, and their experience is sometimes spoilt by an actual cheater.

Account Under Review for Doing Nothing? As title says, my account status is under review and I have noticed I am in shadow ban lobbies. Should I be worried? I have seen a lot of controversy lately over people being banned for nothing.
Source

Ok enough is enough. The abuse of this report feature is a joke. I’m on my second voice ban, now my account is at risk cause I run into teams friends that get salty they lost and literally voice ban my whole team.
Source

The reporting system appears to be the source of this issue. To combat cheaters, developers appear to make the system act swiftly, but this also affects genuine accounts.

More than a month ago, numerous gamers reported getting banned for no apparent reason (1,2,3). However, in that scenario, the system issued the bans rather than the players exercising the ‘report’ option.

There seems to be a false ban wave in Modern Warfare 2 Warzone 2. A friend is currently perma banned. no reason was given. hope they can fix this fast so that we can again play together!
Source

Every game has this problem where cheaters spoil everyone’s gaming experience. So, developers are always working to address this issue. And when it comes to a title like COD: Modern Warfare 2, the pressure is immense.

Nevertheless, they should strike a balance and make the reporting system more robust so that it cannot be abused in the manner that it is now being done.

That being said, stay tuned to PiunikaWeb to know if and when there are any further developments regarding the Modern Warfare 2 broken report option issue.

09:56 am (IST): It seems that the malfunctioning report system has given rise to some new issues (1,2,3) in COD: Modern Warfare 2.

Apparently, trolls are now taking advantage of the fact that gamers are now being immediately removed from the game after shooting another player and getting shadow banned.

05:13 pm (IST): After many months of abuse of the ‘report’ option, there is finally a new policy (1, 2) that will penalize this through the RICOCHET Anti-Cheat system.

NOTE: You can also check out the COD saga tracker for updates on other bugs and issues.

Featured image: COD: Modern Warfare 2

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.