Bottom Dollar Bounties Update Brings Unexpected Censorship to GTA Online

Rockstar Games always takes care of its product, even if it means drawing the ire of its massive fanbase.

With the release of the most recent update for Grand Theft Auto Online, Bottom Dollar Bounties, comes a surprising restriction.

As players had their hands full playing bounty hunters all over Los Santos, thanks to the return of Maude Eccles, some couldn’t help but notice this peculiar change.

Players who logged into GTA Online as soon as the update went live realized that Rockstar had reset the names of their organizations without warning. Most initially thought this was a glitch, resulting from the most recent DLC. But, after several renaming attempts, most would take to Reddit to reveal their findings and vent.

u/7joetaylor was affected by what they described as the “stupid” change to GTA Online after Rockstar banned the word “drug” in the game.

The rest of the community then chimed in with their thoughts about this unannounced and, as some would say, “unwelcome” change. Apparently, the word “drug” wasn’t the only one censored from GTA Online.

According to u/incompetencent, players can no longer use the word “censored” in GTA Online. In their example, the word “something” is no longer available in GTA Online.

However, while it’s admittedly ironic for an 18+ game involving crime, prostitutes, and all sorts of degenerate behavior to be this strict about certain words, it’s not uncharacteristic of GTA Online.

As pointed out by u/Humble-Mycologist484, Rockstar banned players from using the word “Jerry” in Red Dead Redemption 2. But, there’s a good reason for this: Americans used the word “Jerry” to refer to Germans during the 20th century in a discriminatory way. For the same reason, words like “Kraut” and “Fritz” are censored in RDR2.

Granted, Red Dead isn’t Grand Theft Auto, but they fall under the same Rockstar Games umbrella.

For what it’s worth, Rockstar has done an excellent job protecting the GTA Online community, even from itself. In late 2023, Rockstar began using AI to moderate toxicity in the game. It eventually started taking more stringent measures over the course of many months. Then, in April 2024, Rockstar updated the GTA Online community guidelines to help combat abuse and detrimental behavior in multiplayer sessions.

The vision here from Rockstar is clear: don’t be degenerates, even if the game is all about encouraging a life of crime.

Whether or not these changes will reflect in a more “toned down” game in Grand Theft Auto 6, which is coming out in Fall 2025, remains to be seen.