White House removes Tetris-like game 'Building a Wall' after copyright warning

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lim Hwa-seop = CNN reported on the 9th (local time) that the White House released the arcade game 'Build the Wall', similar to the classic game 'Tetris', on its website, but removed it after Tetris' copyright infringement warning.

According to CNN, the White House launched several games on the site last week to promote key policies of the Donald Trump administration. Among them, 'Building a Wall' and 'Rio Run', which are based on immigration issues, caused controversy immediately after their release.

'Building a Wall', which appeared on the 3rd, is a game where users stack bricks in a Tetris-like manner to "secure the line" against the "zombie border offensive."

On the 4th, the day after the release of 'Building a Wall', The Tetris Company, which manages the brand and copyright of Tetris, wrote in an Instagram post, "We believe in the power of connection, rather than dividing people, and the value of bringing people together."

At the same time, the company stated that it had no involvement in creating the 'wall' and warned that it "takes copyright infringement very seriously."

When CNN later inquired about its position, the company responded that it had no comment.

'Building a Wall' disappeared from the White House site as of the 9th, but remains in some videos posted by the White House on social media.

The White House did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.

Another immigration-related game, 'Rio Run', continues to be posted on the White House site.

Users will “patroll the border” along the Rio Grande River that forms the border between the United States and Mexico and “catch all border crossers” to earn deportation performance points. It belongs to the so-called ‘snake game’ genre, in which a long stick is moved so as not to touch obstacles.

In addition, on the White House site, there are ▲ a game that encourages users to put money into their children's 'Trump account' ▲ a game where you control an eagle to fly over the National Mall ▲ a game that classifies school lunch menus and promotes the message "Let's make America healthy again."

The White House is using these games as part of an online promotional strategy targeting the Democratic Party.

On the 8th, the White House posted a video titled 'Legends of Trump', a parody of the Nintendo game 'The Legend of Zelda', on social media X.

On the 8th, the Department of Homeland Security posted an artificial intelligence (AI) generated image on X with the phrase "Transformers: Age of Deportations."

This image is a parody of the movie 'Transformers' poster to promote immigration deportation activities.