Tag Archive for: Fostering

Activision Blizzard accused by California watchdog of fostering ‘frat boy’ culture, fatally toxic atmosphere • The Register

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California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing on Thursday sued Activision Blizzard and its subsidiaries, alleging the company fostered a “frat boy” culture that led to lower pay for female employees, sex and race discrimination, and sexual harassment.

According to the lawsuit, as an example of the effects of this toxic culture, a female worker killed herself on a company trip due to a sexual relationship she had with her male boss.

“All employers should ensure that their employees are being paid equally and take all steps to prevent discrimination, harassment, and retaliation,” said dept director Kevin Kish in a statement [PDF]. “This is especially important for employers in male-dominated industries, such as technology and gaming.”

Activision Blizzard, the gaming behemoth forged in 2008 and based in Santa Monica, California, makes popular computer games such as Diablo, Call of Duty, and World of Warcraft, and runs online gaming service Battle.net.

Accusations of sexism, sexual harassment, and pay inequality have dogged the gaming industry for decades, as demonstrated recently by “gamergate” in 2014 and 2015 and harassment claims at UbiSoft in 2020. But as the “#MeToo” movement has shown, workplace hostility toward women extends far beyond electronic entertainment.

An Activision Blizzard spokesperson told The Register in an emailed statement the gaming biz takes these issues seriously and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) allegations don’t reflect its current workplace.

We note that one Blizzard executive identified in the complaint, “so known to engage in harassment of females that his suite was nicknamed the ‘Crosby Suite’ after alleged rapist Bill Crosby,” appears to have quietly left the company around June 2020. A DFEH spokesperson tentatively confirmed that this is a misspelling of “Cosby,”…

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Data security talent needs fostering

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  • By Chiueh Tzi-cker 闕志克

Since assuming office in 2016, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has on multiple occasions strongly advocated a data security and national security policy.

With all of the world’s major powers having adopted cyberwarfare strategies, there can be no question that data security and national security are inextricably linked.

Last year, several of Taiwan’s state-run companies and many mid-sized and large manufacturers fell victim to ransomware attacks of varying severity, which in some cases resulted in the temporary suspension of business operations or large ransom payouts, laying bare the intimate connection between data security and economic security.

A nation’s defensive capability against cyberattacks can be termed “national data security power.” The government’s data security and national security policies should focus primarily on upgrading that power.

A nation’s data security power is almost entirely determined by the quality and quantity of its data security specialists, and the latter is closely related to the extent to which it possesses a flourishing data security industry. If a nation wishes to elevate its data security power, it must first cultivate a pool of data security talent that can help develop the sector.

In the past few years, the government has been attempting to do just this. Taiwan now has a community of respected “white hat” hackers who regularly participate in the world-famous Capture the Flag competition, organized by DEF CON, an international convention for hackers and computer security professionals in Las Vegas, Nevada. Taiwanese teams frequently rank among the best in the annual competition.

Some of Taiwan’s white hat hackers have established their own data security companies and are doing good business. Meanwhile, white hat hacker social media groups are popping up all over the place, which means that the pool of data security talent in Taiwan is likely to grow.

Do these achievements mean that Taiwan has already built up formidable data security power…

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ESPN Latest To Nix User Comments, Abdicate Its Responsibility For Fostering A Good Community

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Readers of this site will be aware of the trend over the past several years for news and media sites across the internet deciding to nix their respective comments sections. This wave of muzzles on the communities that previously participated in these sites has come with a variety of reasons or excuses, depending on your perspective. Some sites have noted that comments sections devolve into the worst humanity has to offer, with vile speech and spam-bots sucking up all of the digital oxygen. Other sites have suggested that some sort of liability comes along with any proper moderation of their comments sections. Still others have pointed towards social media platforms that can better take over the duties as some sort of 3rd party community gathering place, be it on Facebook or Twitter. All of these reasons are silly and false, or they simply abdicate the site’s responsibility for fostering a well-functioning community of commenters. Here at Techdirt, we love our own community and value the ever-living hell out of our comments, be they supporters of our positions or well-meaning dissenters. Trolls come along for the ride, of course, but we trust our own community to act as a moderating force against them.

And, yet, the trend continues. The latest site to shutter its comment section is ESPN, to much unfortunate fanfare at Deadspin.

No longer will you be able to read an ESPN.com article and then underneath receive the dumbest possible reactions to it. The Worldwide Leader has phased out its Facebook-hybrid comment sections, as confirmed by a company spokesperson this week. None of the keyboard mashing will be archived—they will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Here’s the official statement:

“Fans currently have more touchpoints than ever to voice their comments. We value their opinions, and feel that we are better able to serve them through our customer care team and our social platforms. In fact, we have and are continuing to create content for social that embraces these conversations and interacts with fans.”

This is an abomination. Chintzy Instagram memes are no substitute for jokes that were plagiarized from somewhere else, or completely indecipherable opinions on Colin Kaepernick.

Readers at Deadspin will recognize this as classic Deadspin snark. The site’s writers, despite having its own vibrant commenting community, have always taken a dim view of user contributions to the discussion. Somewhat amazingly, Deadspin in particular has a fairly good commenting community of its own, only deepening the mystery for the stance it takes here.

Well, perhaps not so mysterious. Simplistic might be the better word. Deadspin’s objections, and likely ESPN’s reasoning as well, is that ESPN comment sections tend to be the very kind of vile, idiotic contributions that we discussed in the intro. Deadspin, and likely ESPN, seem to stop the thought process right after making that determination and use it as its reason to muzzle the ESPN community entirely. What’s lost in that kind of thinking is that the onus for fostering a good commenting community at ESPN is on… ESPN.

It’s always been this way. There is so much benefit to be derived from a vibrant comments section, from increased reader engagement, to diverse thoughts that can shape discussion and the future work of the writers of posts, to a treasure trove of useful information and tips that journalists and commentators ought to be salivating over. The real story here is that ESPN has decided to toss all of those benefits out the window because it doesn’t want to do any heavy-lifting to create a comments section that produces that kind of benefit.

It’s the easy way out and no amount of snark or accurate portrayal of the current comments section as a cesspool will change that. Sites, if your comment section sucks, it’s your fault. Taking your ball and going home, even if you’re ESPN, is not the best option. It’s not even a good option.

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