Games

Gamer Files Lawsuit Claiming Muting Violated His Human Rights, Loses Badly

A 'Runescape' player has lost the final court battle in his struggle to get unmuted.
Gamer Files Lawsuit Claiming Muting Violated His Human Rights, Loses Badily

A federal court in Pennsylvania told a streamer he can’t sue Runescape's developer, Jagex, for muting him on Wednesday, as first reported by PennLive. It’s the final stop for a lawsuit Runescape streamer Amro Elansari filed against Jagex on July 10, 2019 after Jagex muted him, rendering him unable to communicate with other players.

“To the extent Mr. Elansari seeks to assert federal constitutional claims against the Defendants based upon his being ‘muted’ from his game, his claims are implausible,” U.S. Eastern District Judge Mark A. Kearney wrote in his original dismissal of the lawsuit on July 15, 2019.

Advertisement
1579899387691-Notes2

Image: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania .

According to Elansari’s handwritten lawsuit, the trouble began in “March/ April 2019.” Elansari wrote “Plaintiff was muted—without being told/ notified." Under the lawsuit's space asking if anyone else was involved, Elansari wrote “Plaintiff is streamer + 2,000 hours invested."

In a box asking if anyone witnessed what happened, Elansair wrote “viewers on stream witnessed.” Later in the lawsuit, he claimed Jagex violated his human rights, and requested a jury trial to remove the mute on his Runescape account.

1579899428997-see

Image: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Unable to prove Jagex had violated his human rights, a judge dismissed Elansari’s lawsuit. He appealed and a federal court upheld the lower court’s decision.

“Even generously construing Elensari’s complaint to raise a claim of public accommodations diesciriation and assuming Elansari can bring such a claim in this context," Federal Circuit Judges wrote in their dismissal, "at no point either in the District Court or on appeal has Elansari alleged losings access to Jagex’s online game due to discrimination based on any grounds."

According to PennLive, Elansari has a history of filing ridiculous lawsuits. In another case, Elansari attempted to file a class action lawsuit against Tinder (something he can’t do, as he’s not a lawyer) because he felt the dating app was scamming people. These are just two of the ten lawsuits Elensari has filed in the U.S. Eastern District Court in the last 18 months.

According to a video on Elensari’s YouTube channel, he’s now in the process of suing Best Buy over an alleged bait and switch scam.