'Destiny 2' studio explains how a hate symbol made it into the game

Earlier this week, Destiny 2 developer Bungie announced that it had become aware of some armor in the game that looked a lot like a symbol used by white supremacists. The company apologized, noted that the symbols didn't represent its values and said the offending armor would be removed.

On Bungie's website, the company has now offered a bit of explanation as to how the symbol was worked into the armor design and what it's now doing to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. As for how it happened, Bungie says that graphic designers often draw from real world art, iconography and other design elements. In this case, a question was raised by Bungie staff as to whether the team was ok with the design looking similar to the "original, innocuous 'kek' internet meme" but its similarities with the Kekistan flag -- a hate symbol -- weren't noticed or discussed. "The more contemporary, vile derivation that has been repurposed by hate groups was not surfaced through this process, and therefore, the armor was approved for ship," said Bungie in a post.

Bungie has removed the symbols from the armor in question and will be removing them from the UI icon and preview screens next week. The company says it's also looking into how it can more thoroughly vet content in the future. "We aren't asking you for the benefit of the doubt. We know we are judged by our actions," it said.