Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: 8chan, THQ Nordic

THQ Nordic CEO Apologizes For AMA on 8Chan One Week Later

Published Mon, 04 Mar 2019 17:10:33 -0600

About a week ago, THQ Nordic decided to hold an AMA event, which wouldn't have been a big deal for many, except it was held on 8chan. If you think 4chan is a cesspool, 8chan makes it look like a Golden Girls appreciation thread by comparison, as the site has been prone to some of the nastiest threads you'll find on the internet from racist and homophobic rants to posts about genocide and child exploitation. For some reason, the minds at THQ Nordic thought it would be a good idea to host an AMA here, and they got lambasted in the press for it last week. We didn't cover it at the time because, to be quite frank, we're not in the habit of giving places like 8chan publicity. But today, the CEO of THQ Nordic sent out a press release apologizing for the decision.

This letter is to offer my sincerest apologies and regret for THQ Nordic GmbH Vienna's interaction with the controversial website 8chan last Tuesday, February 26. I condemn all unethical content this website stands for. Even if no one within the THQ Nordic Group would ever endorse such content, I realize simply appearing there gave an implicit impression that we did.

As Co-Founder and Group CEO of THQ Nordic AB, I take full responsibility for all of THQ Nordic GmbH's actions and communications. I have spent the past several days conducting an internal investigation into this matter. I assure you that every member of the organization has learned from this past week's events. I take this matter very seriously and we will take appropriate action to make sure we have the right policies and systems in place to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

As a Swedish based, fast growing group, we firmly support equality and diversity. We are also working actively to combat discrimination, harassment, and misconduct. We are already in the process of developing new work processes, based on the United Nations' SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and using the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) standards, and we will accelerate this work going forward.

Lars Wingefors

Co-founder and Group-CEO, THQ Nordic AB

What this means for the people who made the call to hold it there is unclear, and it's a little strange to see this kind of response delayed a full week instead of the day after it happened. But it seems like the company is remorseful for the decision.

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