White House Removes Border Wall Game Following Tetris Copyright Warning
2 sources across 2 countries · Germany · United States
Who reported this
- Der Spiegel
- CNN
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
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The White House has removed a video game titled Build the Wall from its official website after the Tetris Company issued a warning regarding copyright infringement. The arcade style game required users to stack bricks to protect the border from a siege. The Tetris Company stated it had not authorized the use of its intellectual property and emphasized its belief in connection rather than division.
The game was part of a broader series of browser games launched by the administration to promote its priorities. Another immigration themed game called Rio Run remains on the website. This game is similar to Snake and tasks users with patrolling the Rio Grande to collect migrants for deportation. Other games on the site include activities related to school lunches, bald eagles, and Trump accounts.
Center left sources frame the launch of these games as part of an aggressive online strategy to troll political opponents, noting that the administration has previously used offensive imagery on official platforms. A White House official described the games as a way to contrast a culture of winning against a socialist vision for America. Additionally, the administration has released other media using gaming aesthetics, including a video styled after The Legend of Zelda and an AI generated image styled after Transformers.
How each side framed it
- Centre-left
- The outlets framed the games as part of a pattern of aggressive, offensive, and trolling behavior by the administration toward political opponents and migrants.
Sources
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