Pepe Emoticons Are Being Removed From Steam, How A Frog Meme Became Controversial
Pepe the Frog is known throughout the internet as a fairly bizarre meme. Beginning as a brazen character in the comic book Boy’s Club, the amphibious image was quickly adopted to convey a number of relatable emotions over the years. From expressing general trolliness to the laid-back memeage of “feels good man”, there always seemed to be a Pepe for any particular mood. That all changed in the last few years when the frog took on a much more sinister association as an escalatingly racist symbol for the alt-right.
As anyone might expect, creator Matt Furie is not exactly happy with the politically-motivated hijacking his character, and has been taking aggressive steps to protect his intellectual property. Several popular websites such as Amazon and Reddit have received cease and desist orders to crack down on Pepe’s alt-right reach. PC marketplace Steam has felt Furie’s wrath as well, with numerous Pepe-centric communities now unable to use their favorite frog emoticons.
Speaking with Kotaku, Furie’s IP attorney Louis Tompros assured that the copyright claims were intended to protect his client’s property from being used for hate, and was his intent to completely remove Pepe’s association with hate groups. Here’s what else he had to say:
A Steam user let us know that there were Pepe images being sold on the site, and that they were being used on that site by people in connection with hateful speech,” Tompros said. “We asked Steam to take those down, and it appears that it has done that.”
Other areas have seen the controversial frog go missing, including games featured on Steam such as Make America Great Again: The Trump Presidency. Pepe’s usage does continue to be featured in countless other outlets, but it’s difficult to say if his days are numbered on those sites as well. What is an unfortunate truth, however, is that a harmless meme has been used by hateful troll groups for no other reason than to just be assholes. It’ll be interesting to see what Furie does in the future to protect his character’s intended portrayal from shady corruption.
What do you think? Was Steam in the right to ban usage of Pepe emoticons, or is Matt Furie going too far with this widespread censorship? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter to be informed of the latest gaming and entertainment news 24 hours a day! For more controversial new from recent weeks, check out these next few links below:
Eric Hall2712 Posts
Phone-browsing Wikipedia in one hand and clutching his trusty controller in the other, the legendary Eric Hall spreads his wealth of knowledge as a writer for Don't Feed the Gamers. Be sure to catch his biweekly "Throwback Thursday" segment for a nostalgic look at trivia from the past.
