It’s been a couple of years since we had one of these stories about a game studio filing DMCA complaints in an attempt to silence criticism, but here we are again: As Polygon reports, the studio is Battlestate Games, the developer behind Escape From Tarkov, and the critic is YouTuber Eroktic, purveyor of a Tarkov-centric channel with over 300 videos on the game.
DMCA takedowns on YouTube and elsewhere are intended to be used for actual copyright claims, but Battlestate told Polygon its takedowns against Eroktic’s channel were targeting “incorrect information and overall negativity,” specifically about Eroktic’s claim of a data breach within the game; the studio rep appears to say that it issued strikes en masse and is reviewing them only now to see which ones actually had “issues with the law and with negative rhetorics.” Eroktic says at least 47 of his videos had received claims, though only two mentioned the security leak rumor that Battlestate denies.
Battlestate’s Facebook posts on the topic denounce Eroktic as “purposefully destructive” not-valid criticism and suggest the community “take a comprehensive approach to [the company’s] assessment before moving on to a new wave of accusations.” Polygon’s piece nevertheless includes commentary from multiple influencers and content creators who have parted ways with Tarkov in support of Eroktic following the incident.
MMO players will recall that in 2017, Wargaming came under similar fire for threatening to lodge copyright claims against a YouTuber in perpetuity because of his highly critical video about its World of Tanks monetization tactics, although the company did apologize and retract the threat after the scandal went public.
