Build the Wall: The Game, an iPhone game created by pro-Trump internet personality Baked Alaska, has been rejected from the Apple App Store for including a cameo by Pepe the Frog.
“I had a free game coming out on iOS today for y’all, but Apple has banned it’s release due to a cartoon picture of Pepe The Frog #FreePepe,” announced Alaska (real name Timothy Treadstone) on Twitter along with a screenshot of the game and Apple’s response on Wednesday.
“Your app includes content that many users would find objectionable and offensive,” claimed Apple in their rejection letter of the game, which is currently available for free on the Google Play store. “Specifically, your app includes Pepe the Frog character.”
“It’s just a fun little game where you are building a wall to keep out illegal immigrants, and as the illegal immigrants climb over the wall there’s a timer, and if you run out of time you’re out” explained Treadstone in an interview with Breitbart Tech. “Your quest is to build the highest wall.”
The game also allegedly includes Trump Steaks (which attract bald eagles to swoop down and carry the illegal immigrants away) and an array of Trump-supporting personalities such as Mike Cernovich, Alex Jones, and Treadstone himself, as well as various different memes including Pepe the Frog and Harambe.
“The hypocrisy of it is there’s dozens of Pepe the Frog apps already out on the App Store, and these are Pepe the Frog-based apps where Pepe is the icon. We merely had a cameo of Pepe,” Treadstone continued. “We get banned because it’s a pro-Trump app, but you can have an app only about Pepe and that’s not offensive.”
In July, Apple’s App Store also rejected a satirical game based on the Hillary Clinton email servers scandal. Apple branded the game as “offensive” and “objectionable” before reversing their decision following a report at Breitbart.
Popular internet meme Pepe the Frog was added to the Anti Defamation League’s hate symbol database in September, where it currently sits alongside the swastika, Nazi SS lightning bolts, and various Ku Klux Klan imagery.
Hillary Clinton, George Stephanopoulos, Katy Tur, and even Louise Mensch’s Heat Street have also branded the cartoon frog a symbol for white supremacy, seemingly basing their claims on a Daily Beast article that interviewed two notorious trolls, Jared Taylor Swift and Paul Town.
During the interview, Swift and Town attempted to link the meme to white supremacy, with Swift boasting that he had managed to trick the media afterwards. Pepe has since been used as a scapegoat by the left to brand internet-dwelling conservatives, libertarians, and even Donald Trump, Jr. as racist.
The branding has prompted many users to fight back against the Clinton Campaign, mainstream media, and ADL’s ruling that Pepe is an offensive icon, branding it a “war on memes.” Several popular YouTubers have also defended the cartoon frog, while on Friday, the Anti Defamation League announced a partnership with Pepe the Frog creator Matt Furie to “take back the popular internet meme from racists and use the frog’s likeness as a force for good.”
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
You can download Build the Wall: The Game at the Google Play store now.
Disclaimer: Timothy Treadstone was previously Milo Yiannopoulos’ tour manager.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.
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