Filipinos online expressed their ire towards a fellow Filipino artist whose work was banned on German Twitter after uploading an illustration depicting the Auschwitz camp on The International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The artist, who goes by the name Khyleri, is reportedly known for dark and edgy takes in his work yet seems to have pushed it too far after his tweet was censored in Germany in accordance with local laws.
The artist’s image depicts Anya from Spy x Family crying because “she doesn’t want to go to school,” based on the glib social media caption. Yet the image is peppered with references to the dark World War II period, including the Arbeit Macht Frei gate, which is known to appear on the entrance of the Auschwitz concentration camp, as well as Anya carrying a book of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, which details his experiences as a concentration camp prisoner. In the background, children are also seen carrying pickaxes and sacks, another reference to labor camps.
Under German law, social media platforms are required to take down illegal content 24 hours after it was reported. These include slander, incitement to hate, Holocaust denial and glorification of national socialism, which are all illegal in the country.
On Reddit, Filipinos expressed their ire towards Khyleri, who seems to incite controversy with his art on purpose — his pinned tweet reads, “Support my atrocities,” with a link to his Patreon page.
“The art was posted on the 78th anniversary of the camp’s liberation, also Holocaust Remembrance Day. The timing was very intentional,” u/paulisaac wrote.
“I’ve seen people argue that Khyleri was Filipino and wasn’t that familiar with the Holocaust. But that argument also flies out the window with the fact that they took effort to research about the Arbet Macht Frei gate and Frankl’s book. It’s unavoidable for Khyleri to learn what the Holocaust is and its significance to the Jewish people and the rest of the world. And they decided to ignore it and still make the drawing. So they can’t play dumb. Even if Khyleri isn’t an antisemite this was still a malicious asshole move,” u/tirigbasan chimed in.
“I’m almost certain that most of their art was ragebait. It doesn’t change how in poor taste that was,” u/macroeconomicchaos wrote.
