IGN and GameInformer articles posting their support of Palestine civilians and detailing the ways readers can support the relief efforts in the country have seemingly been pulled by their parent companies, and staff members from both sites have been left furious.
Why were the IGN and GameInformer articles removed?
The IGN and GameInformer posts provided a list of ways readers could help with the current suffering in Palestine. They offered links and support information for a number of charities dedicated to the area, such as the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and Doctors Without Borders. The articles were posted on Friday, May 14, but by the end of the weekend, they had both been pulled with no explanation.
Game developer Rami Ismail (@tha_rami) posted his own thoughts on the likely reasons for their removal, as well as retweeting ex-senior editor at GameInformer Imran Khan’s post about how to contact J2 Global, who he describes as “heavy-handed,” and GameStop.
Understand how important this is: clearly @IGN and @gameinformer editorial posted this under their editorial freedom. If these posts are gone, it very likely means their corporate owners stepped across the editorial barrier & forced the censorship of those humanitarian resources. pic.twitter.com/u51BTQ8hQz
— Rami Ismail (رامي) (@tha_rami) May 16, 2021
IGN and GameInformer staff members posted their thoughts on the removal of these articles, taking to Twitter to express their deep displeasure over J2 Global and GameStop’s handling of the situation. By the sounds of it, the staff was not aware the posts were going to be taken down until after they had been removed.
Blindsided and furious.
— Stella @ Twitchcon SD (@ParallaxStella) May 16, 2021
I'm actually really upset right now
— Felicia Miranda (@feliciavagabond) May 16, 2021
fucking furious
— Bo Moore (@usebomswisely) May 17, 2021
We are trying.
— Liana Ruppert (@DirtyEffinHippy) May 16, 2021
IGN’s Twitter account posted a follow-up message this morning, seemingly from the site’s parent company given that it didn’t reflect the tone of the original post from its editorial team. In this tweet, IGN explained: “By highlighting only population, the post mistakenly left the impression that we were politically algined with one side. That was not our intention and we sincerely regret the error.”
— IGN (@IGN) May 17, 2021
It is currently unknown whether there will be repercussions following this dispute, either from the parent companies or from the staff.
