Despite Previous Reporting, Fortnite Continues to Platform Violent Political and Antisemitic Content

Violent Antisemitism Flourishes on Fortnite

There are several maps on Fortnite encouraging players to take part in violence against Jews, including one called “Jasenovac Education Map” developed by “cleanbuild.” The Island appears to be based on the Jasenovac Concentration Camp in modern-day Croatia, where the fascist Ustaša authorities, who seized power in parts of Yugoslavia, murdered between 77,000 and 99,000 people between 1941 and 1945, including Jews, Serbs, Roma, and other non-Catholic minorities. Jasenovac Education Map is astonishingly tagged as “educational” and “role playing,” meaning players are meant to either role play (i.e., pretend to be) as the Ustaša, as they are prompted to “eliminate SRBs,” or as the Serbs who were exterminated. Fortnite’s Creator Rules say that Epic Games may “permit exceptions at our discretion to our Island Creator Rules if the primary purpose of your Island is focused on providing an educational, scientific, artistic, or historical experience.” Regardless, allowing such a vile map to be platformed is a gross oversight by Fortnite’s content moderation team. The developer didn’t include a header image for their Island, which may be an attempt at avoiding content moderation.

Fortnite has a subgenre of Team Deathmatches pitting Jews against their “slavers,” depicted as Egyptians. Strangely, they all use the same format for their maps – both teams fighting in between a parted body of water, supposedly the Red Sea parted by Moses, surrounded by desert. Players’ weapons loadout, meaning the weapons they carry in-game, are often the same, such as a compound bow with fire arrows.

Cleanbuild, which developed the Jasenovac Education Map, also developed an Island called “✡️JEW ESCAPE ✡️,” described as an “ancient battle in the middle of the Red Sea splitted (sic) by Moses.” A developer called “projectpolis” similarly developed an Island called “JEW ESCAPE WARZ,” which shares the exact same description as “Jew Escape,” describing the map as including “pyramids,” the “Golden Calf,” which was an idol built when it appeared Moses would not be returning from Mount Sinai, “the burning bush,” “battle remains,” and “melee weapons.” It’s unclear whether the two developers are connected. There is no “escape” possible for players on the Jewish team, as the map confines all players to a relatively small area. Each team is able to win based on the number of players on the other team that they kill.

Two more of these Islands, titled Jews vs. Egyptians and Pharaohs vs. Slaves, were developed by KCG Studios, the same developer as “Storm the Capitol.” 

Politically Violent Content Goes Unchecked

With the U.S. presidential election only months away, Fortnite has platformed several Islands pitting presumptive presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s supporters against each other. Political violence is nothing new to the platform, as Islands in the “Box PvP” (or “Box Fights”) genre, meaning player versus player fights in an enclosed space, featuring political figures, such as former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden, and Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, AfD) co-chairwoman Alice Weidel, continue to be available on Fortnite.

Further research revealed more “Box Fights” based on the U.S. election: TRUMP Box Fight, 🦅2024 Election Boxfight🦅, and 👨🏻‍💼PRESIDENTS BOXFIGHT📦.

Aside from “Box PvPs,” there are several Islands with more fleshed-out designs created to inflict violence on political opponents. For example, “Trump vs Biden,” created by “taziggy,” assigns players to a team representing either Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Whichever team kills more players on the opposing team wins. The map itself is divided into red and blue sections, representing the traditional colors of the Republican and Democrat parties. There are four 3D models of Biden and Trump situated throughout the map, including one in each team’s “base,” along with two large models on the battleground itself. Both Trump and Biden are standing in a “T-pose,” which is the default unanimated state of some models in 3D graphics. It also became a meme (i.e., an online joke) in 2016, being used in the mainstream as a “shitpost,” which is internet slang for making “inane posts on an internet message board.”

Fortnite hosts violent, and sometimes hateful, maps featuring political figures. For example, shortly after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 13, Fortnite published an Island called “Trump vs. Assasin (sic),” which is no longer available to play. Only a few days later, another map titled “🏛️ TRUMP VS ASSASSIN 🎯” was released. On this Island, players are given the option to choose from a variety of weapons to either kill players on “Trump Team” or “Assassin Team.” Several images of Trump have been placed on the map. In-game announcements advising players to changes in the game are made by a voice resembling Trump’s, seemingly created using Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

Islands based on the attempted assassination, and especially their quick releases, demonstrates how content glorifying, promoting, or downplaying the severity of political violence can subvert content moderation and rapidly disseminate on gaming platforms. 

Another Island, “Raid on Mar-A-Largo: Agent Orange,” developed by “sockhead,” is apparently inspired by Trump’s classified documents case and the Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida, which he owns. Trump and Mar-A-Lago were the subject of an investigation, as the former President was indicted for allegedly mishandling classified documents seized at the resort. The case was dismissed on July 15th.

The objective is to kill guards and extract “personal valuables of Agent Orange” from the Mar-A-“Largo” resort. Everytime the player kills a “guard,” it triggers a voice line of Trump saying “he died like a dog,” a line he used describing the death of ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Upon reaching a room with the “valuables,” the player comes face-to-face with “Agent Orange,” who bears a striking resemblance to former President Donald Trump. After collecting the valuables, the player must escape to the “extraction point” while being chased by guards with machine guns and rocket launchers.

Fortnite doesn’t only feature English-language content. A German Island called “afD ZONEWARS (original!),” created by “nuvex,” is based on the far-right German party Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, AfD) and its co-chairwoman, Alice Weidel. The AfD has been mired in controversy recently, as party members attended a secret lecture by Identitarian Martin Sellner on “remigration,” which is the forced removal of non-Europeans from the continent, or ethnic cleansing. Their youth group, Junge Alternative (Young Alternative), is designated as right-wing extremist by the German government. Weidel herself is against same sex marriage and criticized former Chancellor Angela Merkel for destroying the country through immigration, even calling her “insane.”

afD ZONEWARS formerly featured “Alice Weidel cutscene and animations,” but still uses a cartoon rendering of a woman resembling her as its header image, and plasters it across the map, including on and within several buildings. Based on the developer’s TikTok posts, a previous version of the Island appeared to place the AfD logo around it instead. When joining a game, a song called AfD by anonymous rapper 4gegenbeat plays, saying (translated from German): “AfD, I vote for the AfD. It really can’t be that I don’t see a single German anymore,” referencing the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which purports that European elites are secretly conspiring to “replace” the “native” European population with a population of non-European (i.e., non-white) immigrants. The conspiracy theory has inspired numerous mass shootings, including in Christchurch, New Zealand, where 51 Muslims were murdered in 2019. It’s also the basis for the concept of “remigration” mentioned above. His other songs, like “Dortmund,” describe him “punch[ing] four gays in the face on Christopher Street Day,” which takes place on June 28 annually across Europe and the United States to commemorate the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969.

The same developer created two other hateful Islands. One, called “DIE HEIMAT ZONEWARS🔴,” is a direct reference to a German neo-Nazi political party of the same name. Die Heimat! (Homeland), which until 2023 was called the National Democratic Party (NPD), was found to be anti-constitutional in the same year, but not banned from the ballot as they were viewed to be too small to be a threat. Several individual members have been involved in criminal activity, including violence.

Die Heimat Zonewars’ map is identical to AFD ZONEWARS, with the only difference being the Die Heimat! logo placed all over the map. When the game begins, an excerpt from the once-viral melody of “Ich liebe deutsche Land” (“I Love Germany”) plays, made popular by American-German singer Verna Mae Bentley-Krause in 2001.

Another map developed by nuvex is “TALAHON ZONEWARS👊.” The word “Talahon,” originating from the Arabic تعال هون (pronounced taeal hun), meaning “come here,” has recently been turned into an online term describing stereotypes of young men with a migrant, and often Arabic, background. Talahon isn’t inherently a pejorative term, but, in some cases, it’s used to describe Arabic migrants as “wannabe gangsters” amongst other negative connotations.

More so than in 2023, extremists are currently targeting Pride month as something which needs to be “canceled” in favor of White Boy Summer. In many cases, this includes vandalism of Pride flags. Proud Boys Long Island shared a post reading, “White boy summer is in effect until further notice” below an image of a picture saying “BREAKING: PRIDE MONTH CANCELLED (sic)” Other channels like the Bear Flag Nationalists, an Active Club-like group based in California, and No Quarter Corner, the latter based in Canada, shared similar posts. 

White supremacists of various stripes celebrated destroying a number of Pride flags all in the name of White Boy Summer. White Lives Matter California, signaling that “White Boy Summer has Commenced,” praised “f*g flag bandits” for vandalizing Pride flags and signs. Ultras Not Reds shared footage of Pride flags being burned and trampled on in Poland and France, before making another post using White Boy Summer to encourage further vandalism of Pride Flags, saying “Pride month has been cancelled (sic) for WBS!”

Seeing as the term only gained popularity in Germany in June and July 2024, nuvex’s development and release of this Island signifies just how quickly the far right co-opts online trends to spread hateful narratives, including racist imagery, especially when released in conjunction with maps advertising neo-Nazis like Die Heimat!.

When the game starts, a song called TA3AL LAHON, released in 2022, by HASSAN plays. The layout of the map is again identical to others developed by nuvex, except instead of Alice Weidel or the Die Heimat! logo, there’s an image of several fashion-related images in a cage. These clothes, including hats, shoes, and a hairstyle, are reminiscent of TikTok videos making stereotypical and racist assumptions about “Talahons.” Above the cage reads “Markiert, ein Talahon der drauf Reinfällt,” which translates to “Marked, a Talahon who falls for it” in English.

Epic’s Reporting Process Remains Inadequate

As of July 17, GPAHE submitted twelvereports against Fortnite Islands propagating political violence, racism, and antisemitism, five of which were rejected within minutes. Four, including one against the Jasenovac Education Map mentioned above, are still under review. So far, three Islands have received sanctions, with only “Trump vs. Assassin” being deplatformed completely. Unfortunately, Epic’s reporting process makes it difficult to accurately file a report, keep track of the report, and file an appeal.

From our previous work, GPAHE was able to successfully deplatform “Storm the Capitol”, but only after our original report was dismissed by Epic’s reporting system. Epic curiously deplatformed “Storm the Capitol” based on their “Keep It Authentic” rule, which is meant to prevent content from “mislead[ing] players as to the sort of experience they will have,” compared to their “A Safe Environment” rule, which stresses that “Content that condones or incites violence against others has no place in Fortnite” and “Depictions of or threats of real-world violence will not be tolerated.” 

Epic took action against afD ZONEWARS, but not for the hateful song or the promotion of a political party. Rather, it was sanctioned under their “Keep It on the Island” rule, which states: “Other than social media handles/channels that comply with Rule 1.2, do not include external links or QR codes anywhere on your island.” Images of Weidel’s cartoon representation and the “Great Replacement”-inspired “AfD” song remain, at the time of publishing.

Another sanction imposed was on Talahon ZONEWARS, albeit with no explanation and no discernable differences on the landing page or map itself.

“Trump vs. Assassin” was de-platformed following our report under Fortnite’s “A Safe Environment” rule, which prohibits “Content that condones or incites violence against others” along with “depictions of or threats of real-world violence.”

One potential explanation for these decisions is the reporting system itself. Fortnite makes it difficult to report any Island based on specific policies, only granting the user a few options as to which rule has broken.

In a two-step process, the user must first select from a series of vaguely-worded violations relating to offensive content, scams, performance issues, and scams. After selecting one of these, Epic then asks the user to “categorize the content” through a few examples. 

Following reports, one is able to view their statuses through the Epic Games Safety and Security Center, however only through a report ID, and with no actual reference to the specific Island under review. So, if one were to appeal a review, they would have no idea which Island you’re writing about unless you wrote the information down elsewhere. 

Ultimately, the primary issue with Epic’s reporting system, especially with regards to violent political maps, is the lack of adequate policy addressing it.

How Can Fortnite Prevent The Spread Of Hate?

To prevent the creation and spread of hateful maps in the future, Fortnite should consider imposing restrictions on harmful political content and the promotion of hate groups. As it stands, Fortnite has restrictions against creating content that “involv[es] or promot[es] illegal activities” such as “promotion of known real-world terrorist organizations or terrorism,” and “condones or incites violence against others,” including “depictions of or threats of real-world violence.” They also warn against content that promotes “intolerance and discrimination” and “includes hateful symbols or depictions of content that glorifies or incites violence.” 

They should add specific stipulations about violent political content to their content guidelines, which they could borrow from Roblox as a guide, including sanctioning content relating to political parties, “real-world elected officials,” and “inflammatory content related to real world border, territorial, or jurisdictional relationships.” They may also refer to Activision’s Call of Duty, which outlines a Code of Conduct for its players prohibiting the “amplification of any person, agenda, or movement that promotes discrimination or violence based on… race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, culture, faith, mental or physical abilities, or country of origin.” While Activision’s Code of Conduct was built for player interaction, its wording, which includes the “amplification” of hateful ideas, could also be applied to the user-generated content.

Implementing policies against violent and/or hateful content referencing the above and rigorously enforcing them, which is a challenge for all companies, could help to prevent the publication of hateful and politically violent maps on Fortnite. With multiple reports warning of extremist political violence leading up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the promotion of hateful ideologies on video games must be mitigated for the protection of their own playerbase.