Ubisoft removes Black Lives Matter image from Tom Clancy game’s terror group

Enlarge / A shot from the introductory cut scene to Tom Clancy's Elite Squad showing a Black Lives Matter raised fist symbol used to represent the game's terrorist antagonists. (credit: Ubisoft)

Ubisoft apologized over the weekend for a cut scene in Tom Clancy's Elite Squad, a mobile game released last week, that used a raised fist symbol associated with the Black Lives Matter movement to represent an in-game terrorist organization masquerading as a populist front.

The cut scene in question shows a world descending into chaos and introduces UMBRA as a "faceless organization that wants to build a new world order" and "a new threat [emerging] to take advantage of escalating civil unrest." The group "claims to promote an egalitarian utopia to gain popular support, while behind the scenes... organiz[ing] deadly terrorist attacks to generate even more chaos and weaken governments at the cost of many innocent lives."

While the intro's entire over-the-top (and perhaps overly topical) concept was roundly mocked on social media over the weekend, the specific use of the raised fist symbol in UMBRA imagery drew condemnation from many.

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