Nexus Mods has banned the person who removed the Pride flags in the PC version of Marvel’s Spider-Man with his mode which replaced them with US flags. The original mod was called “Non-Newtonian New York”, which replaces the Pride flags around the in-game version of New York with US flags.

According to a statement from Nexus Mods:

To address the banning, which is what a lot of people want to focus on, the mod was uploaded by a sock puppet account (i.e. a newly made account by someone who already has an account on the site) and uploaded under the name “Mike Hawk”. It was very clearly done deliberately to be a troll mod. The fact the user needed to make a sock puppet like a coward to upload the mod showed their intent to troll and that they knew it would not be allowed.

Had they not been a coward and had they used their main account instead, we would have simply removed the mod and told them that we did not want to host it, only banning them if they reuploaded it again after being fairly warned. The creation of the sock puppet removed any doubt and made it a very easy decision for us. Both the sock puppet account and the user’s main account have been banned.

To those who feel offended that the mod (and its modder) has been banned, here’s what Nexus Mods has to say:

We aren’t the authority on what users can and cannot mod. Us removing a mod only means it cannot be found at Nexus Mods, nothing more, nothing less. We also note that we are not the only site that has removed this mod from their platform. As a private business, we have a right to choose what content we do and do not want to host on our platform. Respect this right the same way you want respect for your rights.

If you feel something goes against our policy then please report it. However, we will be the adjudicators on what we do or do not think is appropriate for Nexus Mods. And that goes for everyone no matter where they stand; left, right, up or down.

We don’t want to and won’t argue this with you. We’ve now explained our stance and we won’t be providing a platform for you to distort our position in order to feed an irrational and paranoid narrative. You can do that elsewhere, where we won’t care enough to read it.

If this policy upsets you, if we’ve broken some moral code of conduct as a business that you can’t accept, then please, delete your account (bottom option) and move on, as we will.

In the meantime, check out our review of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PC by heading over here.