IGN re-publishes an edited version of its Palestinian aid post

IGN’s ‘How to help Palestine’ resource of humanitarian links has been republished on the site, three months after it was taken down.

The original post offered a number of ways that IGN’s community could support those in need in Palestine, but it was seemingly taken down by the site’s management. In fact, it was taken down “with no communication to its initial authors, the general IGN staff, or to the public as to why it happened,” IGN staff revealed in an open letter decrying the situation.

The post has now returned, however it has been edited. The post is now titled ‘A Resolution and New IGN Policies,’ and has changed sentences such as “Palestinian civilians are currently suffering… due to Isreali forces” to simply stating “Civilians are currently suffering…” Additionally, a line referencing “a catastrophic loss of Palestinian lives” now reads “a tragic loss of Palestinian lives.”

An update to the post also directly addresses the situation from three months ago, seeming to attempt to strike a balance between the complaints.

“This ‘How to Help’ article, originally posted on May 14th, was taken down shortly thereafter due to controversial interpretations of the post’s intentions and framing, both internally among the IGN staff and externally,” reads the post.

“An IGN employee council, with the advice of a third-party ombudsman, and leadership are in agreement that the post required adjustments to be more culturally conscientious of our staff’s and our audience’s potential reading. We regret the error in publishing without those adjustments, and recognize that our processes failed us. We are also in agreement that instead of taking down the post we should have updated the post.”

IGN has also posted a new policy on corrections, updates, and taking down content, promising not to unpublish content except in “very rare cases.” Instead, the site will use updates and editor’s notes to correct any mistakes, with these notes needing to be approved by the editor-in-chief.