One of Riot Games’ senior staff members has been placed on administrative leave after a post he made on Facebook regarding George Floyd. Ron Johnson is currently the global head of consumer products at the company. His post showed a photo of George Floyd with an overlay that reads, “The media and the left have made George Floyd into a martyr. But who was he really?” The post then dives into Floyd’s criminal record and offered some of Johnson’s thoughts. Riot Games will be conducting an investigation into the social media post and any potential repercussions stemming from it.
Late yesterday, Riot Games issued a statement after a query from Vice: “We’ve been made aware of an offensive social media post made by a Riot employee and have launched an investigation. We’ll say firmly that the sentiment in that image is abhorrent, against our values, and directly counter to our belief that addressing systemic racism requires immediate societal change, which we detailed in the commitments we made Friday. While we don’t discuss the details of our investigations or their outcomes, we’re following our disciplinary process closely and have placed him on leave pending its conclusion.”
George Floyd was killed on May 25th by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for over eight minutes. The incident sparked protests against police brutality particularly with regard to the black community in the US. Peaceful demonstrations themed around Black Lives Matter are still ongoing throughout the US. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with second-degree murder and the other three officers involved in the incident have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Their cases are still pending.
We’ll keep you posted as more is revealed in the coming days.
