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posted by martyb on Monday November 02 2015, @11:50AM   Printer-friendly
from the harrassed-turtles-all-the-way-down dept.

As the March kickoff for the weeks-long 2016 South By Southwest (SXSW) festival approaches, its disparate sections—music, film, and interactive—have begun announcing confirmed panels, speakers, and showcases. SXSW Interactive appeared prepared to host a panel about the hot-button topic of online harassment and abuse, but that plan changed on Monday when a festival director officially announced that the panel, along with another tangentially related panel, had been canceled due to allegations of "numerous threats of on-site violence."

SXSW Interactive director Hugh Forrest posted the news at the festival's official blog, though Forrest didn't confirm whether the threats were linked to both panels that he confirmed received the axe: "SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community" and "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games." After describing SXSW as a home for "diverse ideas," Forrest also described a desire to maintain "civil and respectful" dialogue.

"If people can not agree, disagree, and embrace new ways of thinking in a safe and secure place that is free of online and offline harassment, then this marketplace of ideas is inevitably compromised," Forrest wrote. "Maintaining civil and respectful dialogue within the big tent is more important than any particular session."

And then, just a few days later, we have this report that the panels were restored:

South by Southwest's organizers reversed course Friday and scheduled a summit about gaming-related Internet harassment, after criticism for canceling similar sessions at next year's event due to threats of violence at the festival.

"Earlier this week we made a mistake," Hugh Forrest, director of the SXSW Interactive Festival, said in a statement on its website. "By canceling two sessions we sent an unintended message that SXSW not only tolerates online harassment but condones it, and for that we are truly sorry."

[...] "While we made the decision in the interest of safety for all of our attendees, canceling sessions was not an appropriate response," SXSW's Forrest said, adding the organizers had worked with authorities and security experts. "Online harassment is a serious matter and we stand firmly against hate speech and cyberbullying."


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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday November 02 2015, @01:57PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 02 2015, @01:57PM (#257488)

    My experience indicates it depends strongly on game genre. Console FPS are one thing, modded minecraft is another. I think there's a strong maturity stereotype.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @02:28PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @02:28PM (#257510)

    I steered my wife away from online gaming. Her first few experiences with it were rather negative. She probably has more game time in her steam profile than I do (and that is saying something).

    Though in retrospect it would be funny listening to her tear a 12 year old a new one. She described it as 'playing with the messageboard on youtube'. You get comments all over the map. But mostly the negative ones stand out. I got her out of the online stuff because all it did was cause arguments with strangers. Not a very positive experience. She is already borderline tetchy and does not take to being insulted very well.

    I like this recent comic that describes the dynamic I usually end up with. As I do not buy games until the have been out awhile. So I too stick to single player.
    http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20151012 [cad-comic.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @06:26AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @06:26AM (#257835)

      I steered my wife

      Wow, talk about a total loss of all credibility in the opening line of a post.