Paradox’s Removal of Stellaris’ “Whites Only” Mod Draws Controversy [Updated]
Over on Reddit, though, Paradox Community Manager Paradoxal_Bear said that the issue wasn’t the in-game effect of the mod itself but “several disturbing elements in its public description which we do not want to have clearly displayed on our product page.” He didn’t go into detail on what elements were “disturbing,” but screengrabs of that description from before it was removed suggest that the message “no ‘multiculturalism’ here!” could have been the most problematic phrase.
“We saw the mod, thought it wasn’t in very good taste, but let it remain,” Paradoxal_Bear clarified. “Then the creator of the mod decided to update the description of the mod to promote an ‘agenda’ not related to computer games at all, and this was being clearly displayed on our product page. We decided it was a step too far and removed it.”
Paradox COO Susana Meza Graham echoed the clarification in issuing what she said was Paradox’s final comment on the matter through Twitter. “We have a few rules of conduct that have been in effect for the better part of a decade where racial slurs, among other things, are not allowed. We interpreted this particular mod as breaking those rules of conduct, however it would appear that the comments surrounding the mod, rather than the mod itself, were the biggest problem.”
More: Paradox’s removal of Stellaris’ “Whites Only” mod draws controversy [Updated]