Fortnite Players Will Be Able To Remove Toxic Emotes With New Update

Epic Games is adding a rather controversial feature with Fortnite update v29.30 that will allow players to disable a few emotes the community has deemed as toxic including the iconic Take the L dance.

As explained in a blog post on April 22, the "See Confrontational Emotes" toggle will be added after the update on April 23. According to Epic Games, if this option is disabled, players will only see the Standing Still emote with no sound instead of a selection of emotes selected by Epic Games.

The four emotes that will be affected by this feature are:

• Laugh It Up
• Take the L
• Whipcrack
• Make It Plantain

Players will be able to locate this new setting under the "Social Privacy” tab. By default, the option will be set to only show these emotes from friends in your party, meaning you'll have to manually change it if you want to see the emotes performed by players outside your party.

Credit: Epic Games

The setting can be changed at any time, and it can actually be more restrictive by allowing you to completely disable the emotes to be shown, even if performed by friends or players in your party.

Epic Games explained via social media their decision to give players the option to disable certain emotes, stating they want these cosmetics to be the source of "good vibes," but that some can feel "a bit overly confrontational."

The reactions have been exactly what you'd expect, with users on X (formerly known as Twitter), mocking the decision. And in fairness, I have to agree.

Fortnite is at its core a competitive experience, and considering how much developers like Riot have struggled to control toxicity in games like League of Legends or Valorant, pulling out an emote (for which players paid) after scoring a Victory Royale seems innocuous and harmless in comparison.

In any case, this new option is far from the only thing that Fortnite patch v29.30 will offer, as it's also the start of Fortnite Festival Season 3, bringing Billie Eilish with it after the musician's skin got leaked days prior.