Several IGN employees have co-signed an open letter on Medium regarding the company’s decision to remove an article and links posted on social media for aid organisations working in Palestine.
This comes after the recent violence against the Palestinians in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem by the Israel Defence Force (IDF), which has now resulted in 248 Palestinians being killed, of which 66 were children.
IGN, one of the biggest video game and entertainment outlets, posted an article on their website and across social media, sharing their sympathies and concerns about the ongoing violence, along with links to charities and relief aid for the Palestinians affected. This was paired with the Palestinian flag alongside their logo on the website.
Shortly after they had posted the article, IGN Israel released a statement, in a now-deleted post, condemning IGN’s actions. This was then followed by the posts being removed and the flag being replaced with a Red Cross.
IGN staff took to Medium to co-sign an open letter stating they were “appalled” by the actions taken by the senior staff at IGN. The letter stated, “IGN’s size and reach, we were able to serve as a leader for much of the rest of the industry to also help support those whose lives are torn apart by this conflict.” Social media posts bringing awareness to social issues have been a common occurrence for IGN. They have used their social media to show their support for causes like Black Lives Matter and most recently the Stop Asian Hate.
IGN followed this with a statement explaining the removal of their posts stating, “by highlighting only one population, the post mistakenly left the impression that we were politically aligned with one side”.
IGN were not the only gaming outlet that had their social media posts sharing help and aid for Palestinians removed. Game Informer also had their article and posts removed; however, no posts or statements have been made regarding the reason.
Words by Ugbad Elmi
Support The Indiependent
We’re trying to raise £200 a month to help cover our operational costs. This includes our ‘Writer of the Month’ awards, where we recognise the amazing work produced by our contributor team. If you’ve enjoyed reading our site, we’d really appreciate it if you could donate to The Indiependent. Whether you can give £1 or £10, you’d be making a huge difference to our small team.