Epic Games’ Senior Music Designer, Ariel Mann, is drumming up some controversy after a series of controversial posts on X (formerly Twitter) circulated across social media platforms. Mann, who first revealed his new role as Fortnite‘s music designer on Instagram earlier this year, previously worked as a Senior Composer at Disney.
After one X user shared word of Mann’s new position over the weekend, users started sharing some of the recent hire’s old posts. Alongside screenshots and links were accusations of Zionism, homophobia, and MAGA alignment.
“Yeah.. i don’t know anymore about this game if i am being honest.. BIG L,” reads one X user’s reply. The poster also attached a screenshot of one of Mann’s replies criticizing LGBTQ+ support for Palestine. “I would like to say that I will PERSONALLY buy a plane ticket to Gaza to ANY gay person that supports it,” the Epic Games’ music designer said before closing with Israeli flag, kissy-face, and skull-and-crossbones emojis.
The most recent of Mann’s X replies, dated February 2025, was sent in response to Complex’s post about rapper Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show performance. “I love how we’ve reached a point where they don’t even pretend to have MUSICIANS perform MUSIC on stage anymore.” Now, some people see this as him not liking rap music, but others claim it has racially-charged undertones.
In another post made on the day of the 2024 United States Presidential Election, Mann replied to an upload from the official account for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. The original post features a quote from the show’s own Jon Stewart. “We’re all going to have to wake up tomorrow morning and work like hell to move the world to the place that we prefer it to be,” it says. Mann’s reply: “Nope. BYE BYE JIHAD.” A few months prior, Mann urged Tesla leader and former “special government employee” Elon Musk to run for president.
A user posted an Ad on a children’s YouTube video from Israel. It read as follows, “We know that your child cannot read this. We have an important message to tell you as parents. 40 infants were murdered in Israel by the Hamas terrorist (ISIS). Just as you would do everything for your child, we will do everything to protect ours. Now hug your baby and stand with us.” This is playing over a pink background with clouds, rainbows, and flying unicorns.
Let’s be clear: The video game industry is no stranger to controversy. Still, for only having 40 posts on his X account, his charged replies range from pro-Israel commentary and sports opinions to agreement with another user that Democratic U.S. representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is “stupid.” One response, sent to NBA icon LeBron James, challenges the athlete’s statement on the October 2023 attacks on Israel. “It’s hilarious how people here don’t get that Hamas and Palestinians HATE black people. The Nazis hated black people. What’s wrong with y’all???”
While a decent number of Epic Games and Fortnite fans appear troubled by Mann’s new role as Senior Music Director, we’ll have to see if the resultiong online chatter will cause more backlash or possible boycotts in the future.
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