App maker removes antisemitic dilemmas from reasoning game after complaint from CAA

The makers of a popular frivolous reasoning game, “Will you press the button?”, have removed antisemitic content from their app following a complaint by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism was contacted by a member of the public who had been playing the game with her son, when an antisemitic question popped up. The game invites players to consider whether they would accept something negative happening if something positive were also to happen, for example asking whether you would “press the button” to “gain the powers of your favourite superhero”, even if doing so would also mean that “the hero’s entire rogues gallery will hunt you down until they are defeated”.

The game is generally silly and good-natured, prompting players to consider various fanciful dilemmas. However, tucked amongst the mostly innocuous questions, the game also contained shocking antisemitic content, including asking whether players would “press the button” to “prevent the Holocaust from happening but [the downside is that] 6 million Jews survive”, or to “find undeniable proof that the Jews did 9/11 but [the downside is that] if you release it or tell anyone you’ll get assassinated by Mossad 5 minutes later”.

The questions had been answered in the affirmative by tens of thousands of players, many of whom may have been children.

Campaign Against Antisemitism contacted the app maker, which responded that the questions “were created by users before we had any moderation system” and have now been removed.

We are particularly concerned by antisemitism in computer games, especially those aimed at children. Anybody who comes across material of concern is encouraged to report it to [email protected]. In this case we were pleased to have been able to have the antisemitic content removed within four hours.