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SXSW Reinstates Panels On Harassment, Adds All-Day Harassment Summit (arstechnica.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the never-give-up-never-surrender dept.

An anonymous reader writes: On Tuesday, the South by Southwest Festival announced that it had canceled a pair of panels about online harassment after receiving threats involving them. The cancellation generated a massive outcry, including threats from media organizations to withdraw their support for the festival. Now, SXSW has announced that they're reinstating the panels as part of an all-day summit dedicated to talking about online harassment. They said, "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. The resulting feedback from the individuals involved and the community-at-large resonated loud and clear. While we made the decision in the interest of safety for all of our attendees, canceling sessions was not an appropriate response." They've scheduled more than two dozen speakers for the event, and they plan to stream it live online. "Online harassment is a serious matter and we stand firmly against hate speech and cyber-bullying. It is a menace that has often resulted in real world violence; the spread of discrimination; increased mental health issues and self-inflicted physical harm."

3 of 478 comments (clear)

  1. SXSW are pussies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I virtually kick their asses in cyberspace. I stuff their bits into lockers and turn all their 1s into 0s. Why are they hitting themselves?

  2. What happened to SXSW by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 3, Funny

    SXSW used to be about puking your guts out at 9am after an all nighter, then killing it at shows later that night.

    Panels about online harrasment?!?
    That is on par with assigning an ip to your bidet, logging in to FB through it, then posting updates while using it.

    --
    We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
  3. It's a Trap! by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Funny

    Whole day of panels on harassment

    Oh right, they put together a whole day teaching people how to harass others online, gathering all of the most epic trolls from around the world to one location...

    Obviously gathered for the purpose of a targeted military strike by forum moderators the world over.

    Remind me to stay the hell away from Austin that day!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley