Theo von and Pokémon refuse to use DHS deportation videos
Theo Von and Pokémon Company International have called on DHS to stop content with deportation videos without permission.
Pokemon said the Department of Homeland Security used theme songs and images in a recent social media post without the company’s permission.
“We know of recent videos posted by the Department of Homeland Security, including images and languages related to our brand,” Pokémon Company International said in a statement to USA Today. “We were not involved in the creation or distribution of this content and were not permitted to use intellectual property.”
In a September 22nd post on X, DHS shared a video compilation of the officer Minicheon, who made the arrest juxtaposed in a clip from a Pokemon comic.
The video is set to a Pokemon theme song and is captioned “I have to catch it.” To date, it has been viewed over 72 million times.
Intellectual property refers to creative works such as designs, symbols, names, and more that are legally protected by inventors, according to intellectual property organizations around the world.
USA Today contacted DHS for comment.
DHS faces pushback from the Theo von, Indy 500 x post
Pokémon is not the first entity to claim that DHS did not request permission to use the likeness in social media posts.
On September 23, podcaster Theo Fong said the agency used his clip to use it in a social media post about his deportation without permission.
“yooo dhs I(sic) did not approve of its use for this,” Fon wrote in a subsequent post on X.
The video was later removed from the department profile. The copy of the clip appears to say, “Deported, man, I heard goodbye.”
In another example, while promoting an immigrant detention facility called “Speedway Slammer” in August, DHS shared a photo featuring IndyCar, which has a detention center in the background.
The post featured images of white IndyCar with “ice” and letters 5. Patooward, who uses the same numbers in his car, pointed out that he is the only Mexican Indy 500 driver.
Penske Entertainment, the motorsports company behind the Indy 500, said in a statement to the Indianapolis star, part of the USA Today network, it is unaware that its branding will be used in the images.
A few hours later, DHS deleted the first image and shared a new photo of the car that no longer featured 5th place on the side.
In a statement, DHS told Indystar that the proposal that the original image violated intellectual property rights was “absurd.”
Melina Kahn is a national trending reporter for USA Today. She can be contacted at melina.khan@usatoday.com.
Contributors: James Powell, USA Today; Nathan Brown and Tory Basil, Indianapolis Star
