[Update:] Dangen Entertainment has addressed the allegations from the Medium piece and acknowledged where they had their faults, as well as debunked all the false claims made in the original piece. You can read the entire rebuttal on Medium.com.
[Original article:] A lengthy Medium piece was published on November 29th, 2019 by someone who had worked on Devil Engine and Fight Knight projects in relation to Dagen Entertainment. The piece goes through exhaustive detail alleging abuses committed by the CEO of Dangen Entertainment, Ben Judd, as well as supposed wrongful terminations and uses of content without permission. Regardless of whether any of the allegations are true or not, Medium decided to hop in and remove the piece for supposedly being in violation of their rules.
When the piece was originally published it was quickly spread around by certain people within development circles, where they chimed in on the claims made in the piece against Dangen Entertainment, which is a localization outfit known for localizing games like Iconoclasts for the Japanese market or publishing The Takeover for Nintendo Switch and PS4.
Hey this is important: I was sent this detailed post about Ben Judd’s many many transgressions and misbehavior in the games industry by someone I trust. It includes emails I’ve gotten from Ben back in 2013. This is legit. Please read and share.https://t.co/ZkwYB8Qz56
— Alex✨[Shield] (@dirtbagboyfren) November 29, 2019
screwed over* Keiji Inafune, yeah.
— Just_Matt (@ancoranessuno) December 3, 2019
Several days after the piece was published, however, Medium had it taken down and put it under investigation for violating their terms of service.
Details on the takedown aren’t readily clear, but some of the people who archived the article took notice that if you attempt to visit the original Medium link, the article is no longer accessible.
This prompted some people to start spreading the word that Medium was attempting to censor the article and prevent people from viewing its content.
ATTN @YongYea @LunarArchivist @Grummz (Medium just pulled the “Dangen Entertainment Warning” article.
Archives still exist; suggest getting a local copy before they all vanish. Here’s one: https://t.co/PeT0tn1U2H )
— セイ！ザ メガス！ (@E_Megas) December 3, 2019
What we don’t know is if the piece was reported and taken down, or if Medium reviewed the piece and felt it violated their rules.
So what rule would it have violated? Possibly the harassment rule.
If you visit the Medium policy page they explicitly state that they do not allow…
“Bullying, threatening, or shaming someone, or posting things likely to encourage others to do so […]
”Reviewing businesses or products in a gratuitously harmful or abusive manner”
Is it possible they considered the lengthy piece to be a “gratuitously harmful” article aimed at Dangen Entertainment? It’s possible.
Alternatively someone close to or at Dangen may have reported it for “shaming” them or encouraging others to do so.
I did reach out to Dangen Entertainment regarding the Medium piece to get their feedback on it. Regardless of whether or not the information in the piece was true or not, having it censored from the platform does raise flags.
(Thanks for the news tip E_Megas)