Earlier this month, we reported onthe Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) investigation into online antisemitism, with a particular focus on Holocaust denial. In its report, the ADL gaveFortnitethe lowest rating, an F. For reference, this is lower than other games such asCall of DutyandLeague of Legends, and even lower than social media sites likeTwitter.
The ADL cited the use of antisemitic usernames on the platform, including “Holohoax”. It also pointed to the fact thatEpic Gamesdoesn’t have a specific rule against Holocaust denial.
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“We looked at their policies,” says Daniel Kelley, director of strategy and operations at the ADL. “We found and reported Holocaust denial content on the platforms both as an ‘average user’ would, and by reaching out to the companies as ADL. Fortnite failed in every category of our evaluation.”
However, Jewish game developer Luc Bernard disagrees with this assessment. Having worked with Epic to release his game about the Holocaust,The Light in the Darkness, Bernard says the ADL’s report is “extremely harsh”, and fails to accurately represent the issue of antisemitism in the gaming community - something he has been fighting for some time.
“Why aren’t they hailing Epic for supporting and releasing the first educational video game about the Holocaust?” says Bernard, speaking with me over email. “I mean, how isSteamnot on this list? How come Fortnite is treated like a social network but Steam isn’t?”
In response to TheGamer, the ADL admitted it had omitted Steam as it doesn’t consider Valve “a good faith actor" in fighting antisemitism. It said its resources are “better spent advocating with platforms that have shown some desire to improve in this space.”
This doesn’t change Bernard’s disappointment with the ADL’s poor rating of Epic, particularly as it stems from his long journey to get a game about the Holocaust published. He’s said that over the years, many storefronts and publishers were apprehensive about the subject matter, halting its development.
Eventually, Bernard managed to release The Light In The Darkness on theEpic Games Store. This free-to-play educational game follows a family of Polish Jews in the Holocaust. Based on real-life stories, it aims to keep the history of the atrocity alive for the next generation. It also brings the fight against antisemitism into the gaming space - a place where extreme bigotry can often thrive.
For this reason, Bernard tells me many companies rejected the idea of a game about the Holocaust. Even if a storefrontwaswilling to carry the game, that wasn’t always enough. “Steam was not a good option because of how bad moderation is,” he says. “I knew we would get bombarded with antisemitic comments.”
Right out of the gate, Bernard says his experience with Epic was different. “It felt more like Epic pitching to us than the other way around,” he says. “They told us about their experience at the US Holocaust Museum and how important it is for people to know about what happened in history to fight antisemitism.”
“They even told us to give them feedback on how they can make the store better, and if I encountered any hate, they will take care of it. I have an open line of communication with them if we encounter any hate. Thankfully [on] the Epic Store we have received nothing but positive emails from players worldwide. The antisemitism we see has been on YouTube and Twitter.”
However, Bernard began to fear the company’s efforts wouldn’t “be taken seriously” when he saw the headlines about Epic getting an F ranking from the ADL. “Yes, things could have been done better in terms of making it easier to remove those two [antisemetic usernames],” Bernard admits. “But it is nothing compared to other gaming platforms.”
Bernard also expressed doubt that the two antisemitic usernames included in the report speak to a larger issue at Epic in particular, saying that he would have liked the ADL to have shared further evidence.
“Why is it that we haven’t received one antisemitic email from players, despite surpassing 100,000 players in the first 2-3 weeks?” says Bernard. “Of course, there are Holocaust deniers who play Fortnite, and yes it should have been removed faster, but we need to see more usernames [in the report].”
“Fortnite worse than Twitter? Please, that’s not serious.”
In response to these criticisms, the ADL told TheGamer, “We stand by our methodology.”
“At ADL, we believe it’s important to respectfully tell the story of the Holocaust in numerous art forms - from books, to films and television, and video games,” says Kelley. “We’re glad Luc and other game developers are creating imaginative video games that raise awareness of the Holocaust and make sure that the horror of that period in history is never forgotten or minimized.
“We work with many major companies, individuals and groups to address these urgent issues in gaming. We are committed to working with the game industry both in public and in private to address the urgent issues of antisemitism, hate and extremism in online multiplayer games.”
However, the methodology isn’t the only reason Bernard believes organisations like the ADL need to change the way they approach the gaming scene. Frankly, he feels that they need to speak to Jewish game developers who are already trying to tackle the issue head-on.
His ideas go far deeper than the report that gave Epic such a poor rating. Here, Bernard shares details on how neo-Nazis such as Nick Fuentes are openly recruiting from the gaming community, and making thousands of dollars through livestreaming. Of course, this ties into the alt-right pipeline, in which gaming can often play a vital role.
We’ve seen this most recently with Adin Ross, who started displaying extremely transphobic and misogynistic beliefsafter discovering Andrew Tate’s content online. Following the pipeline,he recently met Donald Trump. He evenalmost hosted a stream with Kanye Westwhile he was praising Hitler and advocating violence against Jewish people, though eventually backed out after claiming West was directly antisemitic on a phone call to Ross, who is himself Jewish.
How to address this is a debate that’s been waged since Gamergate, with no clear answer in sight. But Bernard has an idea of where to start if the ADL is interesting. “I think we need to help community managers know how to spot code words by creating a manual for them.” He says the ADL did respond to this request, but said it didn’t have the resources for this.
Aside from specifics, Bernard just wants to amass some kind of united force against antisemitism in gaming. Especially when the far right finds it so easy to unite in their hate. And even with the issues he has had with larger organisations, he still seems eager to get them involved in a remedy.
“Talk to us Jews in the industry who aren’t part of big companies, who are actually in the dirt dealing with this, fighting back,” he says. “The ADL said all Jews should be united against antisemitism. Well, it’s time to actually do that.”
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