Did Sony DMCA themselves over The Last of Us 2 tweet?

Sony has been going on the warpath lately after major plot details about The Last of Us Part II leaked last month. Numerous independent content creators saw their YouTube channels and social media posts getting struck by copyright claims, for simply discussing the leaks and not showing any specific material from them.

Well, it seems Sony may have finally played themselves. The official @PlayStation Twitter posted a video tweet on May 6th, inviting fans to watch the game’s “intense new story trailer”. Unfortunately, eagle eyed fans noticed that trailer has now been “removed in response to a report from the copyright holder”. Likely by one of their third party copyright goons. We’ve screenshoted and archived it for posterity, but the video is still blocked as of 6:30pm EST on May 26th.

Ellie and Joel’s story continues in The Last of Us Part II. Watch the intense new story trailer: https://t.co/rnNA4Z9Toz Out June 19 on PS4 pic.twitter.com/ZCfAVis7ub
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) May 6, 2020
 

Sony has also been making liberal use of Twitter’s new feature that allows them to moderate replies. Though that hasn’t stopped fans from making fun of them in the comments.

“LMAO YALL DMCA’D YOURSELVES” said @LeoRezArt.

@Thug_BabyYoda simply responded with a picture of Tiger Woods swinging an excellent drive, in reference to one of the more controversial leaks.

Though @sprocketfix’s might by my favourite, comparing the sad state of the game to the remake of Sponge Bob: Battle for Bikini Bottom using the classic virgin/chad meme.

 pic.twitter.com/RYpoIXILXy
— Øyvind Strand (@Sprocketfix) May 6, 2020
 

Sony has come under fire for its heavy handed, alleged abuse of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to scrub any discussion of The Last of Us Part II leaks from the internet. The DMCA does allow for discussion of this sort of content provided it’s newsworthy, and many of the claims have already been released. So it’s rather amusing to see them get hit by friendly fire. But they can always file a counter claim. Maybe Twitter will get back to them on that in 6-8 months.

Correction: Original Tweet was actually posted on May 6th, but it seems to not have been struck by a DMCA claim until May 26th. Article updated to reflect that.