If you found yourself looking YouTube for Red Dead Redemption 2 clips last week, or even just browsing the site’s most popular videos, then you likely stumbled upon it: a thumbnail of the game’s protagonist, Arthur Morgan, punching a Suffragette in the face.

YouTube user Shirrako had uploaded the footage on his gaming channel, and it quickly racked up millions of views.

Thousands of hateful, misogynistic comments amassed underneath it, and other gamers took it upon themselves to post clips of themselves killing Suffragettes, the historic women’s rights protest group that feature within the game’s storyline, in ever-more violent fashion.

Motherboard reported on the trend and interviewed Shirrako, who said that he thought it was clear that the video was a joke. Media backlash built as more feminist-killing videos appeared, and YouTube quickly made the decision to delete Shirrako’s offending clips under their community guideline rules.


Shirrako hit out at the decision to Motherboard, decrying the “censorship” of his channel. "I mean you literally rip characters apart in Mortal Kombat, why are those videos allowed and what I made is ban worthy?" he said. "It just doesn't make sense, no matter how you look at it."
Swathes of high-profile figures within the gaming and vlogging communities reacted in fury, with YouTuber Keem claiming that the controversy was “going to create GameGate 2.0.”.

And now, possibly as a result of that backlash, YouTube has made a U-turn on the decision and reinstated the videos.