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Nintendo denies firing Alison Rapp due to pressure from a hate group

The Mario company claims it is just following its internal policy.

Image Credit: Nintendo

Earlier today, former Nintendo employee Alison Rapp revealed that Nintendo had “terminated” her employment. Now, the company is elaborating on why they came to that decision.

Rapp, a member of Nintendo of America’s Treehouse localization team, no longer works for the company as of today, and the publisher says that’s because she held a second job in conflict with Nintendo’s corporate culture. She has spent the last several months fending off a targeted attack from a hate group that congregates on forums like 4Chan and Reddit. In her tweets today, Rapp suggested that Nintendo decided to part ways with her because of these attacks.

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Nintendo is now firmly claiming that its decision had nothing to do with the hate group that was harassing her. The company provided GamesBeat with the following statement.

“Alison Rapp was terminated due to violation of an internal company policy involving holding a second job in conflict with Nintendo’s corporate culture. Though Ms. Rapp’s termination follows her being the subject of criticism from certain groups via social media several weeks ago, the two are absolutely not related. Nintendo is a company committed to fostering inclusion and diversity in both our company and the broader video game industry and we firmly reject the harassment of individuals based on gender, race, or personal beliefs. We wish Ms. Rapp well in her future endeavors.”

We’ve reached out to Rapp for a response to Nintendo’s comment. Additionally, we’re hoping to get Nintendo to elaborate on what aspects of its corporate culture it is claiming she violated.

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While Rapp has not responded to our request, she has taken to Twitter to respond to Nintendo.

https://twitter.com/alisonrapp/status/715362489441984512

https://twitter.com/alisonrapp/status/715362564167733248

https://twitter.com/alisonrapp/status/715362657914585090

Updated at 9:45 p.m. on Wednesday night with new tweets from Alison Rapp.

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