Fortnite now lets you block the game's most toxic emotes

Fortnite has added a new setting so you never again have to see or hear some of its most “confrontational” (read: toxic) emotes.

These include such classics as Laugh It Up, where you guffaw with the sound of a braying donkey, and Take the L, where you dance from side to side holding – as Smash Mouth once said – your finger and thumb in the shape of an L on your forehead.

Also included are Whipcrack, which does exactly what you'd expect, and Make It Plaintain, which lets you fire out banana-like fruit from your fingertips. Both of these emotes have previously been associated within the game's community with racist abuse.

Fortnite maker Epic Games announced the introduction of a “See Confrontational Emotes” toggle last night, which can be found in your Account and Privacy menu within Settings. When enabled, players will see any nearby player performing these emotes simply standing motionless instead.

It's an interesting design approach for a game which clearly – like all online games – suffers from toxic player behavior and changing attitudes to emotes sold in its shop. Epic Games hasn't chosen to disable these emotes entirely, and the filter isn't on by default. But it's clearly cognizant of issues associated with them, and providing an opt-in get-out clause for players sick of seeing them.

It will also be interesting to see if any of these emotes stay within the Item Shop rotation going forwards.

The past 24 hours have seen an avalanche of Fortnite news, including confirmation that popstar Billie Eilish is coming to the Fortnite Festival rhythm mode, the likely-confirmation of what is perhaps the biggest Fortnite leak of all time, and the publication of the first interview with Fortnite's former creative boss Donald Mustard – in which he discussed Epic Games' attempts to woo Nintendo.