Paradox Interactive just drew a hard line at 1800 after a moderator on the official Hearts of Iron IV Discord banned a Turkish player for using a real photograph of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as a profile picture. Game director Laszlo "Batya" Pieper admitted the moderation team "handled that responsibility poorly" and that rules around real-world historical figures had not been enforced consistently, prompting the company to ban Discord profile pictures of political or military figures born after January 1, 1800 while still allowing official in-game portraits except for prominent Nazi leaders. The original ban escalated when the moderator described Atatürk as "controversial and polarizing," compared him to Karl Marx, and tied him to the Committee of Union and Progress and 1915 events, sparking accusations of inconsistent standards and nationality-based treatment. Turkish players flooded Steam with negative reviews, driving HoI4's recent rating to "Overwhelmingly Negative" with reports of over 20,000 recent reviews at around 7% positive, while the Discord server restricted new joins and some accounts remained banned for abuse or threats. Batya emphasized that Paradox "never aims to review history or take positions on political figures," but the 1800 cutoff and seven-day grace period to comply make clear the damage control came after the fact, not before.