Nexus Mods has removed a suite of mods for Marvel Rivals that replaced the heads of Marvel’s heroes with those of US Presidents Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama. The mods were uploaded earlier this week, and their removal kicked off a slew of angry videos and discourse alleging Nexus Mods was engaging in a form of “censorship” by refusing to publish them.
Now, Nexus Mods is pushing back against the narrative, confirming it removed the mods, as it does not wish to engage in political discourse, particularly as it’s a small company based in the United Kingdom.
“There has been a lot of misinformation circulating on this topic, which we’d like to quickly clarify and put to rest. Nexus Mods has always been about building a positive modding community,” reads a statement on the Nexus Mods X account. “Unfortunately, some of the content uploaded to the site becomes a magnet for conflict, division and mob harassment.”
“By removing the Trump mod, we are simply executing our existing file submission policies. What has been overlooked in much of the conversation is that we also removed other mods featuring US Presidents uploaded to the site for Marvel Rivals, such as Biden and Obama. We remain a small, independent, UK-based company, and as such we have no stake in US politics and do not wish for our platform to be used as a base for US political discussion.”
Read: Nexus Mods bans Starfield mod that removed pronoun options
In pushing back against the discourse, which has reportedly led to Nexus Mods being sent death threats and other profanities, the company has reiterated that it has the right to host whatever mods it chooses, and that players can go elsewhere if they wish to install mods relating to American politics.
A further statement from Nexus Mods owner TheDarkOne on Reddit has further criticised the ongoing discourse, underlining that the company has no patience for “outrage-bait” and “whackjobs.”
“It’s so dumb, and these people are so dumb, that I really cannot be fucked with it,” they said. “I’m not expecting any of my staff to have to handle these whackjobs any more than showing them the door either. So we delete all the mods we see/that get reported to us on the topic, and all the people this upsets can trot-on because it’s really not worth our time or effort to care about.”
It really is that simple. If you don’t like, move on.
