IGN Posts, Takes Down Article Linking To Palestinian Aid Groups

Last weekend, gaming news outlet IGN posted an article linking to Palestinian aid groups amidst the heightened violence in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, and prominently displayed the Palestinian flag on the masthead next to the company's logo. This morning, the article and the flag were gone.

In its place was a statement tweeted by the IGN account tweeted at 2:27 A.M. Monday morning, saying the post was "not in line with our intent of trying to support for all people impacted by tragic events" and that it "mistakenly left the impression we politically aligned with one side."

pic.twitter.com/YnQ7OflvHA

— IGN (@IGN) May 17, 2021

Twitter onlookers, and particularly those in media, believed that IGN's apparent pro-Palestine sentiment was no mistake—they did put the Palestinian flag next to their logo, after all—and suspected that the decision to remove the article was made by corporate higher-ups rather than IGN's editorial staff.

This does not sound like it was written by the same staff that published a news article explicitly encouraging charity to Palestinians. I don’t buy this at all, and you shouldn’t, either. Nice try. https://t.co/hO0QIK9u0w

— Patrick Klepek (@patrickklepek) May 17, 2021

I don’t believe for a second that anyone you know wrote this.

My heart goes out to the IGN editors who are doing their best to make a difference and save civilian lives -- and are being silenced and spoken for by the soulless people above them. https://t.co/6k2imoPXqo

— Mitch Dyer (@MitchyD) May 17, 2021

New statement from IGN claims to speak on behalf of everyone at the company in calling the Palestinian aid post "an error."

Regardless of content, it's outrageous to see management not only censor editorial but then also try to put words in its mouth. https://t.co/t4Tced1zfV

— AmericanTruckSongs8 (@ethangach) May 17, 2021

IGN's original article sparked conflict between the gaming hub's international branches. IGN Israel, in particular, condemned their sister site's statement.

Game Informer experienced a similar story last weekend, as its article linking to Palestinian aid groups had been removed. As with IGN, people suspect that editorial staffers faced pressure from upper management to remove the post.

Understand how important this is: clearly IGN</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/gameinformer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">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