A Nintendo of America marketing specialist named Alison Rapp announced her firing from the company on Wednesday—and insinuated that the termination was related to "a whirlwind of controversy and [GamerGate] harassment." However, Nintendo offered a firm rebuttal to that story and confirmed its dedication to inclusive hiring practices.

"Though Ms. Rapp’s termination follows her being the subject of criticism from certain groups via social media several weeks ago, the two are absolutely not related," the company said in a statement issued to press outlets. "Nintendo is a company committed to fostering inclusion and diversity in both our company and the broader video game industry, and we firmly reject the harassment of individuals based on gender, race or personal beliefs. We wish Ms. Rapp well in her future endeavors."

Rapp, a former Game Informer staffer, had worked as a member of Nintendo's "Treehouse" team, which handles various marketing and translation duties, for nearly three years. In February, she found herself in the crosshairs of anonymous Nintendo critics who took issue with Nintendo's localization of recent games, particularly 3DS game Fire Emblem: Fates—which, among other things, removed the Japanese version's "gay conversion" scene.

In spite of Rapp's denying any involvement with Nintendo of America's translations, she became the target of an online campaign. As in other recent anonymous, online publicity campaigns targeted at so-called "social justice warriors," the outcry over Rapp centered on accusations of pedophilia—specifically about an essay Rapp wrote in college (which Kotaku's Patrick Klepek described at length in a report on the essay and the surrounding controversy).

A cached version of a change.org petition made its intent clear: "We must send a message... to Nintendo, that it is NOT OK to employ someone who openly advocates not just illegal acts, but morally reprehensible, degenerate, and extremely damaging prospects to world." Meanwhile, infamous racist troll Andrew "weev" Auernheimer left comments on an anti-Rapp article to encourage readers (NSFW) to send complaints to Nintendo in specific ways: "be very respectful, act as a concerned parent, link to the pro-pedo statements she's made but obviously don't link back to [this site] or she'll be able to dismiss it as a white supremacist conspiracy."

Rapp took to Twitter to allege that Wednesday's firing was related to complaints sent to Nintendo regarding her college essay. Nintendo offered a response to various press outlets claiming the firing was actually related to "violation of an internal company policy involving holding a second job in conflict with Nintendo’s corporate culture." Rapp later confirmed holding this second job "to pay off student loans" and did not clarify what that "anonymous" work was—although her own Twitter account pointed to a recent photo shoot.

Still, she alleged that there was more to the firing. "Do you think that if the industry wasn’t afraid of women, sex-positivity, etc., that the anonymous moonlighting I did would have been a problem?" she wrote. She also alleged that Nintendo reduced her public-facing work after campaigns against her launched.