Facebook pulls virtual reality shooting game at CPAC

In a tweet Friday, Hugo Barra, Facebook’s vice president of virtual reality, conceded, “We got this wrong,” in light of the deadly shooting at a Florida shooting high school last week.

“There is a standard set of experiences included in the Oculus demos we feature at public events. A few of the action games can include violence,” Barra said in a statement sent out to media outlets. “In light of the recent events in Florida and out of respect for the victims and their families, we have removed them from this demo. We regret that we failed to do so in the first place.”

The shooting game that had been on display at the annual gathering of conservative activists near Washington, D.C., is called “Bullet Train” and features a simulation of “an agent undergoing an infiltration simulation set inside a modern train station” and facing off against “resistance forces.” The game uses a Oculus virtual reality headset and motion controllers. Oculus VR is owned by Facebook.

Facebook, which during the 2016 campaign faced accusations of political bias against conservative news outlets, has again found itself in a comprising position after conspiracy theories about the Florida school shooting rapidly spread on Facebook as well as YouTube.