Silence Penalty

Any player who is reported multiple times under the Spam or Abusive Chat categories will automatically receive a silence penalty. While this penalty is active, the silenced player will find that their ability to chat with others is greatly limited. Additionally, a voice silence penalty exists that’s separate from chat silence penalties.

Silenced Players Cannot

 * Use Allied Chat in-game
 * Play Storm League
 * Chat in in-game channels
 * Send Whispers to non-friends

Silenced Players Can

 * Use Party Chat (with invited players)
 * Create, Suggest, and Request to Join parties
 * Send and receive friend requests
 * Send Whispers to friends
 * Reply to Whispers from non-friends
 * Issue in-game Pings

Penalty
Silenced players will be notified of the penalty’s remaining duration each time they log in to Heroes of the Storm, and a new icon will be displayed on their player portraits in the game’s menus to indicate their silenced status to others. Players that are in-game when they receive a silence penalty will be logged out at the end of that game, but will still gain any XP, Gold, or Ranked Points earned during the previous match.

The first time a player is silenced, their chat will be restricted for 24 hours. This duration will double for each silence penalty received after the first, and there is no maximum. This means that players who receive multiple silence penalties may find themselves unable to chat for a long time.

In some cases, however, silence penalties alone aren’t enough for repeat offenders to see the error in their ways and correct their behavior. A player who returns to abusive behavior after their initial silences expire will begin incurring account suspensions. These suspensions will quickly ramp-up in duration and prevent them from playing Heroes of the Storm entirely. Players who prove they are incapable of — or unwilling to — improve their behavior after being warned, silenced, and suspended enough times will be permanently banned from the game.

Reporting
Players can report another player for various types of inappropriate behavior by clicking the gear icons found on in-game score screens (TAB), as well as end-of-game score screens, and then selecting "Report Player". They can also report players outside of a match by right-clicking a player’s name in the chat pane. These reports add up, and receiving too many can result in silence, suspensions, or even permanent bans in extreme cases.

Some players are concerned that they may be penalized after being falsely reported for abusive chat or abusive voice. This is not the case. Here’s how Blizzard handle false reports in these instances:
 * Abusive chat or spam reports are ignored if they are issued against a player who hasn’t participated in in-game chat or public chat channels.
 * Abusive voice reports are ignored if they are issued against a player who hasn’t participated in voice chat.
 * Abusive chat and abusive voice reports issued by players on an enemy team are also ignored.

Report Categories & Guidelines for Use

 * Abusive Chat
 * Insults, cruelty, or ongoing harassment directed at one or more players.
 * Hate speech
 * Real life threats


 * Intentionally Feeding
 * Player intentionally and repeatedly gets their hero killed in order to anger allies or feed XP to the enemy team.


 * '''AFK/Non-Participation
 * Player is idle or inactive for an extended period of time during a game.
 * Player is present, but has given up or refuses to take part in the game.


 * Cheating/Botting/Hacking
 * Suspicious behavior which indicates the player may be using third-party software or hack programs to gain an advantage during a game.


 * Inappropriate Name
 * Character names or BattleTags that are offensive, insulting, bypass the mature language filter, or are otherwise considered objectionable.


 * Spam
 * Excessively communicating the same phrase, similar phrases, or pure nonsense
 * Blatant or repeated advertising for third party websites

Caveats
Avid Abathur players may worry about being reported for Non-Participation, and Murky lovers may be concerned about receiving Intentional Feeding reports. However, heroes with unique mechanics are taken into account, and action will be taken accordingly. Additionally, players can rest assured that a single report from an ally who misunderstands Abathur’s playstyle, for example, will not result in any penalties against their account.

Players who are found to frequently dish out trivial or false reports will also be investigated.