|
|
Internet
|
|
ADL Letter to WildTangent, owners of open-source software made to produce "Ethnic Cleansing."
|
Alex St. John
President and CEO
WildTangent
18578 NE 67th Court
Building 5, Redmond East Office Complex
Redmond, Washington 98052
Dear Mr. St. John:
We want to bring to your attention that a nationally known hate group has created a violently racist computer game, "Ethnic Cleansing" using the Genesis 3D and RealityFactory software owned and licensed by your company. In fact, the game is now being sold online by a white supremacist record label with your company's logo prominently displayed both within the game itself and on the CD-ROM packaging. The game is crammed with anti-Semitic and racist images, and the goal is to shoot to kill as many Jews, Blacks and Hispanics as possible.
ADL has long tracked the growth of extremism on the Internet, but the use of computer video games as a source of revenue and recruitment for hate groups is a new and deeply troubling development. We are especially concerned that similar open-source software could enable racists to develop even more sophisticated games in the future. Already, the National Alliance, a violent neo-Nazi group, is selling "Ethnic Cleansing" and is promising to market and sell other versions of this game.
We hope that you find this development as outrageous and offensive as we do. We urge you to publicly disassociate your company from this offensive perversion of your game and to state unequivocally that WildTangent does not endorse the views of racists and anti-Semites. In addition, we ask you to consider developing language to be included in the licensing agreements of your open-source engines that would prohibit them from being used as a vehicle to promote hate and bigotry.
We look forward to your response and working with you.
| |
Sincerely,
Abraham H. Foxman
National Director
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
