NexusMods bans all US political mods until after election
"To be blunt, we do not care how this looks."
One of the internet's biggest sites for gaming mods has banned all submissions with political themes until after the US election.
NexusMods' ban covers all "mods relating to sociopolitical issues in the United States" and will last until "sometime after the next President of the United States has been inaugurated" - so not until the end of January 2021, at the earliest.
NexusMods' decision was announced today in a weary-sounding update from the site's staff. "To be blunt, we do not care how this looks," read the statement posted to the site.
The move follows a spike in "provocative and troll mods" being uploaded, apparently mirroring a similar trend seen around the time of the last US election four years ago.
"Considering the low quality of the mods being uploaded, the polarising views they express and the fact that a small but vocal contingent of our users are seemingly not intelligent or grown up enough to be able to debate the issues without resorting to name calling and baseless accusations without proof (indicative of the wider issues plaguing our world at this time) we've decided to wipe our hands clean of this mess and invoke an outright ban on mods relating to sociopolitical issues in the United States. We have neither the time, the care or the wish to moderate such things.
"Most of these mods are being uploaded by cowards with sock puppet accounts deliberately to try and cause a stir. If you see one of these mods I suggest you do as our Terms of Service say and report the mod and move on without engaging with the content. Your engagement will only fuel the idiots further. Smile and be happy in the knowledge the time it took them to make an account on the site and upload their mod is a lot longer than it takes for us to ban the account and delete the mod.
"To be blunt, we do not care how this looks nor do we care if you think the mods we do or don't moderate reflect on us, our political beliefs or what we do and don't want on our site. Say and do what you want on other sites or services, we care nothing for it here.
"Have a great day."
The post does not state what causes or party(s) the mods were intended to promote but... it doesn't really need to.
The US is due to go to the polls in one month's time, on 3rd November.