A mod which replaced the Pride flags with USA flags in Spider-Man Remastered has been removed from mod websites.
The modding community for Spider-Man Remastered has been pretty active since the game’s release on PC last week, creating mods to change the pigeons into rats and all sorts of other fun character switches. However, one mod which caught attention has been more divisive.
The mod in question replaced any Pride flags that appeared in the game with the US flag. Uploaded on 15th August to Nexus Mods, it was removed by site staff on 17th August. A similar mod appeared on ModDB, which has also been removed.
Nexus Mods released a statement to address the mod’s removal. The statement slams the mod’s creator, who had used a sock puppet account (a new account created solely for trolling purposes), going so far as to call them “a coward”. The mod has now been removed, and both the uploader’s sock puppet and main accounts have been banned.
The staff post continues to explain the site’s right to exercise content moderation, laying out in clear terms why the action was taken. “We are for inclusivity, we are for diversity,” the post reads. “If we think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take action against it.
“We don’t want to and won’t argue this with you. We’ve now explained our stance and we won’t be providing a platform for you to distort our position in order to feed an irrational and paranoid narrative. You can do that elsewhere, where we won’t care enough to read it.
“If this policy upsets you, if we’ve broken some moral code of conduct as a business that you can’t accept, then please, delete your account (bottom option) and move on, as we will.”
ModDB confirmed it had also removed the mod and banned the user who had uploaded it to its site.
Hi! We’ve removed the content and banned the users. ModDB is an inclusive environment for all and we do not permit targeting marginalised groups. Our content moderation is largely automated but when identified, we have a zero tolerance policy for this kind of content. https://t.co/0leqjUxqJD
— ModDB (@ModDB) August 17, 2022
Since then, there’s been a flurry of more positive mods on Nexus Mods in response to the situation. Colourful New York replaces all of the US flags with the Pride flag instead, whilst Progressive Flags adds flags for different minority and campaign groups such as the transand Black Lives Matter flags.