Company Forces the White House to Remove an Electronic Game.. What’s the Story?

- The White House removed from its website a game styled after the popular game "Tetris" called (Build the Wall), which was designed to closely resemble the famous game. This move came after the company that owns "Tetris" warned of "copyright infringement." The White House launched a series of games on its website last week to promote the priorities of President Donald Trump's administration, but two games focused on immigration — (Build the Wall) and (Rio Race) quickly sparked negative reactions and criticism, including from the "Tetris" brand, which stated that it believes "in the power of communication and bringing people together, not dividing them."

The game (Build the Wall), which first appeared on the site on Thursday, asked users to stack bricks and "hold the line" against a "border siege by zombie creatures." Shortly after its launch, "Tetris" published a statement on Instagram confirming that it "did not participate in the creation of the game," adding: "We take copyright infringement seriously."

The game disappeared from the White House website by Wednesday, but some of its clips still appear in videos posted by the White House on social media. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Afaaq News.

A representative from "Miller PR," which represents the "Tetris" brand, told Afaaq News on Wednesday: "Tetris has no comment." Another game centered around immigration, (Rio Race), is still available on the White House website.

This game, similar to the (Snake) game, involves users doing "patrols on the line" along the "Rio Grande" and "catching every border crosser" to achieve the highest score in deportations. The White House also continues to feature three other arcade-style games: one that asks users to fill in "Trump's private accounts for kids"; another that asks them to guide the "bald eagle" (the American national symbol) over the "National Mall"; and a third game that allows users to classify the components of a school lunch in order to "make America healthy again."

The launch of these "arcade" games represents the latest bold and provocative efforts by the White House online to provoke Democrats, practices that have sometimes led to the emergence of racist and offensive images. Trump and the White House have faced sharp criticism, for example, for their use of social media and official government platforms; including the posting of racist and offensive images, such as a picture of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a Mexican "sombrero," and a picture of former President Barack Obama's family depicted as monkeys in the jungle.

A White House official described last week the "arcade" games (traditional video games in arcades) as an "attempt to highlight the contrast between a culture of fun and victory, and the grim socialist vision that Democrats hold for America." On social media, the White House has shown no signs of retreating from using video game-inspired images to promote its agenda.

On Tuesday, for example, the White House posted a video on the "X" platform (formerly Twitter) mimicking the game "The Legend of Zelda" produced by "Nintendo," and dubbed it "Trump Legends." The messages broadcast by the administration via social media are not limited to video games; on Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security posted an AI-generated image from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency designed in the style of a "Transformers" movie poster, carrying the phrase: "Transformers: The Era of Deportation."