SXSW summit wades into volatile online harassment debate: Pa

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SXSW under fire after removing harassment-focused panel: A panel focused on ideas to reduce harassment in the video gaming community was canceled because of threats of violence that SXSW received.
By Malena Carollo, Staff writer
OCTOBER 27, 2015

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The South By Southwest Festival's decision to cancel an all-female panel about combating harassment in video gaming has quickly swirled into an online controversy. Many critics are calling for the festival to reinstate the canceled talk, while other participants are pulling their panels in solidarity.

The annual music, film, and tech festival in Austin said in an e-mail to panelists Monday that it removed two panels "focused on the GamerGate controversy" from its 2016 lineup because of "threats of violence." GamerGate erupted last year when an anonymous group coordinated efforts to target female game developers, resulting in many prominent female gamers being subjected to online and physical harassment.

"Obviously I feel very disappointed that their response to threats of violence directed at a panel of women in technology has been to effectively silence that panel and to rob the event of what I think was going to be a very productive and wide ranging future-focused discussion," said Katherine Cross, a Ph.D candidate at the City University of New York Graduate Writing Center, who was scheduled to participate in one of the canceled talks.

The dropped panel, "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games," actually wasn't intended to be about GamerGate, said Ms. Cross and her fellow participants. Instead, it aimed to focus on how game design, and other strategies, can help prevent harassment. The second canceled panel, "SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community," would have delved into the social and political "landscape in the gaming community."

Jessica Valenti ✔ ‎@JessicaValenti
SXSW canceling panels on harassment just sends the message that tactics to silence women are working http://www.sxsw.com/news/2015/sxsw-stat ... gh-forrest …
6:18 AM - 27 Oct 2015

Photo published for Strong Community Management: Why We Canceled Two Panels For SXSW 2016
Strong Community Management: Why We Canceled Two Panels For SXSW 2016
On Monday, October 26, SXSW Interactive made the call to cancel two sessions for the 2016 event: "SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community" and "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games." We...
sxsw.com

For organizers of the "Level Up" panel, this is the first time in their experience talking about issues within gaming that a venue has canceled a panel due to threats. Earlier this year, however, video game developer Brianna Wu, who has spoken out about the harassment of women in gaming, backed out of a gaming festival in Boston because of safety concerns for her and her coworkers. The festival, she has said, would not acknowledge her requests for security measures leading up to the event.

Adam Steinbaugh ‎@adamsteinbaugh
BuzzFeed pulls out of SXSW after SXSW gave in to the heckler's veto. Good for them. http://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashrull ... .oqAwZEnDB …
8:25 AM - 27 Oct 2015 · Los Angeles, CA, United States
Photo published for BuzzFeed To Withdraw From SXSW Over Canceled Gaming Panels
BuzzFeed To Withdraw From SXSW Over Canceled Gaming Panels
In a letter to organizers, BuzzFeed said it intended to withdraw from the conference if SXSW refuses to reverse its Monday decision canceling two panels related to gaming and online harassment due ...
buzzfeed.com

According to the e-mail from SXSW to Cross and her fellow panelists, the festival "prides itself on being a big tent and a marketplace of diverse people and diverse ideas." But, it went on, "preserving the sanctity of the big tent is more important than preserving any particular session."

Days before receiving the e-mail, Cross's panel reached out to SXSW when the other gamer panel was announced to discuss potential security issues. According to panelist Randi Harper, chief executive officer of the Online Abuse Prevention Initiative, intimidation comes with the territory – and extra mindfulness about security at conferences can help combat that.

"We’re usually receiving the threats," Ms. Harper said. She considers this one of the tamer topics she’s spoken on.

Their security concerns, the group said, appeared to receive little attention from festival promoters. SXSW did, however, reiterate its desire to host an event with an open and inclusive environment. Now, Harper said, canceling the panel sends the message "that they’re backing down."

That's not a popular decision with some of the other scheduled speakers. Buzzfeed, for example, announced it was removing its panel from the SXSW lineup in solidarity if the decision isn't reversed.

Caroline Sinders, the panel’s organizer, said she isn’t upset over being uninvited. Ms. Sinders has experience planning conferences, as she cofounded the coding, interactive art, and videogame conference FACETS. She sympathizes with the dilemma SXSW faces, but said the focus should instead be on what conferences should do in similar situations.

"This is a really hard space if you’ve never had to navigate it before," she said. "We are disappointed in their outcome, but I think this raises a really good question that we need to have now around security, especially in tech spaces."

SXSW did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

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To Catch A Troll: Schedule
by SXSW
March 12, 2016

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Bringing together leaders from the technology industry, government and law enforcement, this discussion will shed light on the serious IRL impact of online trolling, dissect the pitfalls local and federal legislation face when prosecuting online harassment and whether new laws will improve efforts in combating online hate.

Hashtags: #sxsw #OnlineHarassment

PRESENTERS



Ari Waldman
PROFESSOR
New York Law School

Ari Ezra Waldman is the Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Innovation Center for Law and Technology at New York Law School. He is the Founder and Director of the Tyler Clementi Institute for Cyber Safety, a full service academic center of excellence that includes, among other things, the country's only pro bono law school clinic dedicated exclusively to helping victims of cyber harassment find justice. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a B.A., magna cum laude, from Harvard College.

Professor Waldman's research focuses on online privacy, hate and harassment on the Internet, and social networks. His dissertation, which he is turning into a book, argues that to protect information privacy in the digital age, the law of privacy should protect relationships of trust. His ongoing projects include an analysis of the manipulative effects of privacy policy design; empirical work on the nature, frequency, and prevention of cyber harassment; the role of trust in our propensity to share; unmasking anonymous online harassers; and many more. His scholarship has been published in leading law reviews, including the University of Miami Law Review, the Hastings Law Journal, the University of Maryland Law Review, the Temple Law Review, and others.

Professor Waldman serves on the Data Privacy Advisory Committee of the Taxi and Limousine Commission of New York City, the Board of Trustees of the Tyler Clementi Foundation, and the Leadership Council of OUTLeadership. He is the Privacy Issues Expert for About.com and the Legal Editor at Towleroad.



Katherine Clark
US REP IN CONGRESS
US House of Representatives

Congresswoman Katherine Clark proudly serves the Fifth District of Massachusetts. She was first elected in a special election in December of 2013.

Katherine’s career in public service is driven by her commitment to helping children and families succeed. She is a vocal advocate for ending wage discrimination, protecting women’s health care, access to affordable, high-quality child care, paid family leave, safer schools, and other reforms to address the challenges women and families face. She believes that Congress must work to end the glaring disconnect between the needs of families at home and priorities in Washington.

Katherine is an outspoken advocate against online threats and harassment, and has authored legislation to combat online abuse, including the Prioritizing Online Threat Enforcement Act and the Interstate Swatting Hoax Act.

In Congress, she brings her experience as a state senator, state representative, general counsel for the Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services, and policy chief for the state attorney general.

Katherine serves on the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce, and the Committee on Science, Space and Technology. In the House Democratic Caucus she serves as a Senior Whip, and is a member of the Steering and Policy Committee. Katherine is a member of several caucuses in Congress, including the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Women’s Caucus.



Sgt BA Finley
Johns Creek Police Department

Detective Sergeant Finley is a 20 year veteran of law enforcement. He has served in almost every facet of law enforcement from Patrol, Traffic, Undercover Narcotics, SWAT and Criminal Investigations.

He is currently assigned as Supervisor over the Criminal Investigations Unit in his department in metropolitan Atlanta Georgia. Along with his supervisor duties he primarily works online/cyber related crimes.

Sergeant Finley has worked with The Georgia Bureau of Investigation – Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in tracking and arresting child predators on the internet. He is a member & Agency Representative for the National White Collar Crime Center and also a member of the High Tech Criminal Investigators Association.

Sergeant Finley was the lead investigator in a multi-state and international swatting investigation that involved a suspect who had swatted 40+ cities in the US and Canada. He worked with the FBI Atlanta- Cyber Unit and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia Canada to track, identify and arrest the international serial swatting suspect.

New York Times Magazine featured a story of the yearlong investigation of the serial swatting suspect. Ultimately he was arrested in Canada and charged with the crimes he committed here in the USA. Some of his charges included criminal harassment, extortion (sextortion) and Identity theft.

He has also worked with Westchester Co. NY Police and the District Attorney’s office to track down and identify another serial swatting suspect that had committed numerous incidents all over the US.

Sergeant Finley is currently working with his Georgia State Representative to enact Georgia's first swatting law.

He is also scheduled to appear in several documentary films to speak about swatting and online harassment.

Sergeant Finley also developed and teaches a Women's & Teen girls self defense class. It not only deals with tips on physical safety but online safety as well.

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Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games
by SXSW
March 12, 2016

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Gaming experts to discuss online harassment in gaming and geek culture, how to combat it, how to design against it and how to create online communities that are moving away from harassment. The panel’s topics will specifically center around research data, UI development and UX design to report and stymie online abuse.

Hashtags: #sxsw #OnlineHarassment

PRESENTERS

Caroline Sinders
DESIGN RESEARCHER
IBM Watson

Caroline Sinders is an interaction designer for IBM Watson, artist, researcher and video game designer. She was born in New Orleans and is currently based in Brooklyn. She received her masters from New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program where she focused on HCI, prototyping, and interactive storytelling. She holds a bachelor of fine arts from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in Photography and Imaging, where she studied digital culture and large format portraiture. Caroline is a member of the Code Liberation Foundation's board, as well as a teacher for the foundation. Her current personal work explores UX and UI to stymy harassment and 'designing consent' into system designs and communication design for social networking sites.

Her work has been featured in the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston, Style.com, Bust Magazine, Animal NY, Narratively, The Verge, Washington Post, New York Magazine, and other places.



Kami Huyse
CEO & FOUNDER
Civilination

Kami Watson Huyse is a digital strategist, speaker and author. She is the CEO and founder of Zoetica, a digital marketing and public relations agency, and is accredited in public relations. Zoetica has helped hundreds of organizations and companies connect with their customers online, build community, and drive measurable business results. She is the architect of many award-winning marketing programs and has earned two Society for New Communications Research Social Media awards and IABC's Gold Quill of Excellence Award for her work.

She speaks over a dozen times a year at events and conferences across the country on the subjects of social media measurement, influence, strategy and online civility. She is the author of How to Use Social Media, Win Business and Find Influencers and is a contributor to Welcome to the Fifth Estate and the textbook Public Relations Writing: Form and Style. She was the technical editor for Civility in the Digital Age. She has also been a columnist for PRNews, an industry trade magazine, as writes regularly on her blog, Zoetica Talks.

She was named PR Professional of the Year in San Antonio, was recognized for a Social Media award by the Austin-American Statesman, has been named one of the 100 most powerful Women on Twitter by Twitter Grader, one of the 30 top people to follow in PR on Twitter by e-Releases, one of AG Beat's Top 50 Influencers, is a Top 100 Power Influencer in Houston, is one of Cision’s Top 50 Rich Social Media Influencers to Follow, and one of Likeable’s 150 Great Marketers to Follow. She is also the founder of the Social Media Breakfast of Houston (#SMBHOU). Contact her on Twitter @kamichat or via email at [email protected].



Katherine Cross
LECTURER/GRADUATE STUDENT
Cuny Graduate Center

Randi Harper
FOUNDER
Online Abuse Prevention Initiative

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Women in the Media and Online Harassment
by SXSW
March 12, 2016

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Women with careers in media are often the target of online harassment that ultimately impacts their careers. Hear from women leaders in activism, journalism and tech as they discuss the unique position women with high profile jobs face online and share their own experiences of online hate for simply doing their job.

Hashtags: #sxsw #OnlineHarassment

PRESENTERS



Jamia Wilson
EXEC DIR
Women Action and the Media

"Jamia Wilson is many things: An activist. A feminist. A storyteller. A mediamaker. But more than anything, she is a natural-born thought leader. As Executive Director of Women, Action, & the Media, the former YTH Executive Director, TED Prize Storyteller, and former VP of Programs at The Women’s Media Center, Jamia has been a powerful force in the social justice movement for nearly a decade. As a leading voice on feminist and women’s rights issues, her work and words have appeared in and on several outlets such as New York Magazine, The Today Show, and The Washington Post. She’s also a staff writer for Rookie and has contributed to several books such as Madonna and Me: Women Writers on the Queen of Pop, & I Still Believe Anita Hill. But what we’re most excited about is her own book that she’s currently writing about Beyonce and feminism. (Yes, really.) It’s no surprise she was named in Refinery29’s “17 Faces of the Future of Feminism.”

It may be true that Jamia has spoken alongside feminist greats like Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda, but we think they’re also lucky to have been alongside her. A true next generation leader, she has graced the stage at events such as TED Women, Netroots Nation, and Facing Race, and travels across the U.S. and beyond to college campuses to talk about race, feminism, spirituality, leadership, and so much more."-Fresh Speakers

Meredith Walker
CO-FOUNDER
Smart Girls at the Party



Soraya Chemaly
DIR
Women's Media Center

Wendy Davis
DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR TEXAS GOVERNOR
State Senator

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Why Does Hate Thrive Online?
by SXSW
March 12, 2016

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A panel consisting of researchers, professors and experts to discuss research based studies involving online harassment and the fundamentals of online hate including, but not limited to, its terminology, instigators, targets, methods, and why online hate can be more dangerous than hate that originates offline.

Hashtags: #sxsw #OnlineHarassment

PRESENTERS



Andrea Weckerle
FOUNDER
Civilination

Andrea Weckerle is the founder of CiviliNation and the author of the book "Civility in the Digital Age: How Companies and People Can Triumph over Haters, Trolls, Bullies, and Other Jerks." She earned her Juris Doctor at T.C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond, where she also served on the Senior Staff of the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology, the first exclusively online law journal in the U.S. In addition to her law degree, she underwent extensive mediation training, earning certificates in Commercial Mediation and Conflict Resolution Processes.



Joanne St Lewis
PROFESSOR
University of Ottawa

My motto, justice is made flesh by what we do, inspires my teaching, consulting, training and activism. I am currently teaching courses in public law, digital defamation and counter-terrorism. I am also a lecturer in the USC CREATE Homeland Security Centre of Excellence, Executive Program on Counter-Terrorism.

I am the first Black woman to sit on the Law Society of Upper Canada--the governing body for 47,000 lawyers in Ontario, Canada--in its 218 year history.

In June of 2014, I was the successful plaintiff in a case of malicious online defamation that has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada.

"Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality."



Maeve Duggan
RESEARCH ASSOC
Pew Research Center

Maeve Duggan is a Research Associate at Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. Her work applies public opinion methods to explore how the internet and technology shape our society. She is the author of a nationally-representative survey of internet users on the prevalence and patterns of online harassment.



Susan Benesch
DIR OF DANGEROUS SPEECH PROJECT
Berkman Center For Internet And Society

Susan is Faculty Associate of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. She founded the Dangerous Speech Project, to study speech that inspires intergroup violence - and to find ways to prevent this *without* infringing on freedom of expression - and she does research on how to counter hateful and harmful speech online.

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Combating Online Hate with Compassion
by SXSW
March 12, 2016

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Is there something beyond the recursive loop of hate online? This session will define the factors that sustain online violence and explore practical steps to end it. For some, examining those elements -- emotional distance, the rationale, and the predictable fight or flight responses -- may lead to creative and practical ways to understand online aggressors in ways that go beyond the hatred.

Hashtags: #sxsw #OnlineHarassment

PRESENTERS



Dr David Pulsipher
PROFESSOR
Brigham Young University

David Pulsipher is a professor of history. His research explores nonviolent solutions to violent problems, and he a regular speaker (including at TEDx) on principles of strong yet compassionate resistance. He is the author of "When We Don’t See Eye to Eye: Using the Weapon of Love to Overcome Anger and Aggression" and has been a Fulbright Scholar at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, India.



Elly van Laar
MEDIATION COACHING
Elly van Laar Coaching

Elly van Laar, empathy coach, mediator and facilitator, has 20 plus years of experience in working with individuals and organizations. She combines two areas for growth: (1) personal and professional effectiveness, and (2) compassion and collaboration. She helps expand and enhance relationships, bridge differences and collaborate around conflict.

She specifically likes to guide others through the process of change in perception and attitude, exploring behavior, and clarifying communication.

She is trained in Nonviolent Communication, and has a personal practice in Plum Village mindfulness. She has a Masters degree in Political Science, from Leiden University, The Netherlands.

Connect with Elly: @EllyvanLaar



Sunni Pavlovic
STUDIO MGR
thatgamecompany

Sunni Pavlovic is the studio manager of thatgamecompany and oversees the day-to-day running of the development team and business growth. The studio is best known for its multi-award winning titles such as Journey, Flower and flOw for PlayStation 4. As a spokesperson for the firm at conferences and in the media, she advocates interactive entertainment as a prominent new medium to connect, inspire and share positive emotion around the world.

Sunni has spoken at Game Developers Conference, Digital Hollywood, Resonate New Media Festival, Munich Filmfest among others, and has been interviewed and quoted by Variety, Forbes, VentureBeat, The Verge, Polygon and Gamasutra. Most recently she was honored by Digital LA in their “Top 50 Digital Women” 2015 list, and was a jury member for the 2015 International Mobile Gaming Awards.



Terese Wier
COMPASSION ADVOCATE/LEADER
Terese Wier Change Agent

Terese Wier is a compassion advocate and leader. She works closely with people to solve business, civic, social and interpersonal issues with compassion as a unifying principle. Terese's career began with Accenture after which she ran her own project management consulting firm and worked with clients from all industry sectors. In addition to leading compassion-centered projects, Terese works as an on-call hospital chaplain with St. David's South Austin Medical Center where she cares for patients and their families.

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