Bungie removes "hate symbol" from Destiny 2

Bungie has acted swiftly to remove a "hate symbol" from a piece of Destiny 2 armour.

The "Kek" logo was featured prominently on a pair of legendary Hunter gauntlets. The design is no longer visible in game.

Kek is a World of Warcraft meme more recently popularised by notorious internet imageboard 4chan, and which developed over time to be featured on a flag for a fictional country, Kekistan. This flag was designed to share obvious similarities with that of Nazi Germany, and has been carried by those attending some of the recent white nationalist rallies in the US.

Bungie admitted the logo was featured in Destiny 2 last night. The developer apologised, and said that it would be removed.

"It's come to our attention that a gauntlet in Destiny 2 shares elements with a hate symbol," Bungie said in a statement posted to Twitter. "It is not intentional. We are removing it.

"Our deepest apologies. This does NOT represent our values, and we are working quickly to corect this. We renounce hate in all forms."

1/2 It’s come to our attention that a gauntlet in Destiny 2 shares elements with a hate symbol. It is not intentional. We are removing it.

Five hours later, Bungie tweeted again to say the design had been scrubbed from Destiny 2's shared game world - meaning you will no longer see the logo when you wear that piece of armour. Players reported the armour design had changed.

Further work will now be needed to fix the design appearing during inspections, and via the armour's in-game icon. This will happen next week.

The removal came as part of Destiny 2's extended maintenance window yesterday. The downtime was extended, presumably while Bungie made the armour change.

This imagery has been removed from the shared game world. It will be removed from inspections and icons in a HotFix planned for next week. https://t.co/Mom6ZGiSMa

Questions remain around how the design got there in the first place. Bungie said the logo was not "intentional", which is ambiguous. Of course, no-one thinks Bungie or publisher Activision supports those values. But someone made the armour, chose that colouring and design. I'd put money on that person no longer having a job.

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