Minecraft launcher project spins out of control after dev hijacks it to fight 'leftist queer ideology'

pcgamer.com:

A fairly popular custom launcher project for Minecraft has capsized after a maintainer purged the project's other developers for «promoting radicalist leftist queer ideology,» GamingOnLinux(opens in new tab) reports. With the project under their exclusive control, the hijacker is now free to push any update they like without oversight, including malicious code.

The project, PolyMC(opens in new tab), bills itself as a Minecraft launcher focused on «predictability, long term stability and simplicity». Its purpose is to provide users with an easy means to manage multiple different installs of Minecraft on a single machine, each with its own unique constellation of mods, resources, and settings. Following yesterday's purge, current PolyMC users are being urged by the Minecraft modding community to stop using the launcher immediately.

Unfortunate but urgent announcement to make.If you use PolyMC as your launcher, we are urging all users to switch off of it immediately. Not tomorrow, today. The main keyholder for PolyMC's infrastructure has been compromised.October 17, 2022

It's not entirely clear which supposed act of «leftist queer ideology» set off the bizarre coup in the first place. The project update that accompanied the purge—named "reclaim polymc from the leftoids(opens in new tab)"—did only one thing: Delete the project's code of conduct, which contained provisions aimed at protecting project users and participants from transphobic, homophobic, and racist abuse. 

Those provisions certainly seem like the kind of thing that might enrage someone with reactionary politics, but the code of conduct has existed for months. There are even records from May of the dev who just hijacked the project arguing for removing the