In a recent back-and-forth involving SXSW Interactive and the community interested in discussing “Gamergate”-related subjects, two relevant panels were cancelled on October 26th. The first of the two was titled “SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community” and was to be coordinated by the Open Gaming Society‘s Perry Jones. The other, “Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games,” coordinated by Caroline Sinders, who boasts the title of IBM Watson Interaction Designer and hoped to bring insight to the discussion involving how interfaces in games relate to harassment and its prevention. After announcing the second of those panels, SXSW’s Hugh Forrest published a statement on their website, where he explained,
We had hoped that hosting these two discussions in March 2016 in Austin would lead to a valuable exchange of ideas on this very important topic.
However, in the seven days since announcing these two sessions, SXSW has received numerous threats of on-site violence related to this programming.
SXSW prides itself on being a big tent and a marketplace of diverse people and diverse ideas.
However, preserving the sanctity of the big tent at SXSW Interactive necessitates that we keep the dialogue civil and respectful.
It became clear throughout the week that SXSW had received a lot of complaints over this decision. The Washington Post published a piece titled “SXSW canceled two panels after threats — but did nothing when female panelists asked about harassment” wherein it was stated that,
…it would seem that this cancellation was fundamentally different from the ones at Utah State or the Society of Professional Journalists’ Airplay event. According to Sinders, SXSW organizers repeatedly declined to discuss the security concerns of female panelists in the lead-up to the event.
The community consensus was generally unanimous in the opinion that the SXSW Interactive administration acted rashly in their decision, but yesterday, October 30th, a new announcement was made. On their website, SXSW Interactive issued an apology:
Earlier this week we made a mistake. By cancelling two sessions we sent an unintended message that SXSW not only tolerates online harassment but condones it, and for that we are truly sorry…The resulting feedback from the individuals involved and the community-at-large resonated loud and clear.
In addition to that, however, came the announcement of a new event:
It is clear that online harassment is a problem that requires more than two panel discussions to address.
To that end, we’ve added a day-long summit to examine this topic. Scheduled on Saturday, March 12, the Online Harassment Summit will take place at SXSW 2016, and we plan to live-stream the content free for the public throughout the day.
The summit will include Randi Harper, Katherine Cross and Caroline Sinders from “Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games,” as well as Perry Jones, Mercedes Carrera, and Lynn Walsh from “SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community.” We are working with both groups to develop the most productive focus for their appearances.
That’s right, an Online Harassment Summit, live streamed for free, featuring all the cancelled speakers from the original two panels and then some. The list of confirmed panelists joining the discussion is extensive, so head over to the SXSW Interactive page, linked above and right here.
Anybody interested in attending the event in Austin, Texas from March 11-20 can visit the main SXSW page. Those interested in seeing the live stream of the summit will need to stay tuned to either SXSW or here at MXDWN, where we’ll have all the updates as they are released.