Among Us Apparently Violated the Geneva Conventions Act

By Cade Onder

Among Us apparently violated the Geneva Conventions Act, which essentially provides the legal basis for various war crimes. We're not going to give you a whole history lesson on the Geneva Conventions, but basically, it's a set of rules and treaties that require participants in a war to be treated humanely. That means no torture, any wounded or sick people must be attended to, and so on. It's a pretty crucial element of war and has the ability to cause a lot of political trouble for those who break these rules, particularly in a real war with real countries.

However, Among Us is a silly game with little spacemen doing some murders. It is not at war, it is not a country, but it did still manage to violate the Geneva Conventions. The official Twitter account for Among Us confirmed it was in violation of the act back in 2020 before the game had its viral success. Among Us had existed for quite some time, but only became as big as it is now when people were looking for something to play during the pandemic. This caused it to absolutely dominate social media and become one of the biggest games of the last few years. However, since it was flying under the radar for so long, it was able to have an error that no one even knew was an error. The red cross that is commonly associated with health or medical assistance was used in the MedBay in Among Us. However, this is not allowed without expressed permission from the International Committee of the Red Cross, meaning InnerSloth had to change its colors. 

As reported by Kotaku in 2017, the developers of Prison Architect ran into a similar issue and received an email from the British Red Cross noting that it was a technical violation of the Geneva Conventions. As you may expect, the developer quickly made the appropriate changes.

"If the red cross emblem or similar signs are used for other purposes, no matter how beneficial or inconsequential they may seem, the special significance of the emblem will be diminished," reads the email sent to the Prison Architect team. "The red cross emblem or similar designs are not general signs of ambulances, health care, first aid, the nursing or medical profession, or similar matters. Moreover, they are not signs to be used for commercial purposes, such as for advertising campaigns or on products." 

Did you play Among Us before this change was made? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

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