Pepe the frog can’t catch a break without being banned for something. We’ve seen this with Apple banning all things Pepe related on the App Store and now we see the same thing to a certain extent happen on Steam, except Matt Furie and his lawyer have stepped in this time.
Nach Veröffentlichung Website comicbook.com we learn that Steam, to a certain extent, will no longer tolerate Pepe the frog due to Matt Furie’s DMCA strike, which joins his other legal notices that apply to Reddit, Amazon, and more.
The publication site lists one of those such companies as being the popular PC gaming platform Steam. Furie and his lawyer have sent the platform or service a notice to remove Pepe the frog emoticon from its libraries.
The publication site posted up the disclaimer as to why the Frog is now missing from said department along with an image to back up the disclaimer:
“Emoticon art currently unavailable due to a DMCA takedown notice submitted on behalf of Matt Furie.”
The site also posted up why Furie and his lawyer feel the way that they do about the frog after they found the “harmful” posts depicting Pepe. This is what they had to say:
“A Steam user let us know that there were Pepe images being sold on the site, and that they were being used on that site by people in connection with hateful speech. We asked Steam to take those down, and it appears that it has done that.”
The act of Furie and his Lawyer blocking people regarding others using Pepe as “hate speech” propelled after Apple banned Pepe the frog on the App Store starting on June 9th, 2017. Around two weeks afterwards, Furie started a Kickstarter Seite to “revive Pepe” that stated the following information:
„Bevor Pepe der Frosch ein Meme wurde, das von der Anti-Defamation League als Hasssymbol bezeichnet wurde, begann er sein Leben als glücklich bekiffter Frosch in meinem Comic „Boy's Club“, wo er ein einfaches Leben mit Snacks, Limonade und dem Zerreißen seiner Hosen genoss Weg nach unten, um pinkeln zu gehen. Boy's Club debütierte 2006, Pepe wurde um 2010 zu einem Meme und blieb dann lange genug im Internet, um zu einem institutionell anerkannten Hassmaskottchen zu werden. Unnötig zu erwähnen, dass es ein Albtraum ist, also habe ich ihn getötet. Aber jetzt möchte ich ihn zurückbringen, und ich möchte Sie um Hilfe bei der Finanzierung eines neuen Zines bitten, das den auferstandenen Pepe feiert, eines, das in all dieser Dunkelheit ein Licht erhellen und uns wieder gut fühlen soll.“
-Matt Furie
Moreover, Furie went on to say on the Kickstarter page that…
"Wir verstehen, dass es keine Möglichkeit gibt, das Internet oder die Art und Weise, wie Menschen sich für die Nutzung von Pepe the Frog entscheiden, vollständig zu kontrollieren. Das kontrollieren zu wollen, wäre ein völlig unvernünftiges Ziel. Das Ziel dieses Projekts besteht jedoch darin, Pepe durch die Schaffung eines brandneuen Comics im Geiste des ursprünglichen BOY'S CLUB positiv wiederzubeleben.“
The true question here that should be addressed, is Furie doing exactly what he said he did not want to do and is trying to control the Internet because that would be an unreasonable goal?
