"BullyHunters pitched us with a simple idea - let’s work together to fight online harassment. And because we believe that’s a noble cause, we supported it.

It’s now clear that we didn’t do a good job in understanding exactly what we were supporting. And we’re sorry for that.

The way BullyHunters represented the gaming community was wrong and disingenuous. Most gamers don’t experience harassment, and more importantly, 99%+ of gamers don’t do the harassing. We’re well aware of the many faults with BullyHunters. We hear you guys, and we agree.

To clear a few things up: BullyHunters was not a viral campaign stage-managed by us. We did not hire a marketing agency to create it. We didn’t have anything to do with its execution, content or messaging. And more importantly, we would never take advantage of an issue like bullying to sell hardware. They asked us to supply some headsets, support the call for positive change, and we did.

Although we still believe in a world where harassment isn’t tolerated, it’s clear to us that BullyHunters is hurting, not helping, that cause. On Friday, we ended our support and partnership with the organization.
We apologize to those who support our brand and expect more due diligence in vetting out campaigns and partnerships we associate ourselves with." - Steelseries official Facebook.

hmm

not surprised

if you want to start a campaign about something you can prolly get in touch with steelseries to make some custom headsets for you np, all they have to do is change the plastic a bit

this does leave open something though

who is the mastermind behind it all?

follow the money?

A Whois lookup certainly wasn't helpful

Dunno what I expected, there.

Apparently , Vertagear, a company that makes racing-style chairs, issued a statement on their affiliation with Bully Hunters.

"Last month, we were approached with a campaign to bring visibility to the seriousness of cyberbullying: Bully Hunters. At the time, we felt it was a worthy cause for us to engage with as we believe the issue is a pertinent one that runs alongside the expanse of technology, online gaming, and the study of mental health.

While we understand that much of what is construed as “bullying” by many is rather just playful banter not unlike that of what you may see in competitive environments in the offline world, what we perceive to be online bullying manifests itself in a much more direct, vitriolic, threatening and harmful manner. Although online games are equipped with tools to shield gamers from dialogue, the damage is often done before these tools are used for the most mentally vulnerable, whether they are male or female. It was our hope to shed more light on this matter, and to work towards an environment that would cater to our fellow gamers in distraught.

When we were approached with the background and goals of Bully Hunters, we put our faith in the cause and the organizers. However, the information that we received before the start of the campaign not only contradicted the execution of it, but we discovered after the fact that it was sorely lacking. Our biggest mistake was not thoroughly vetting the details of the campaign to ensure that the execution would be up to the proper standards expected, and we apologize for that and the horrendous results of this event.

We have always prided ourselves in understanding the needs of the gaming community from all walks of life. We engage with non-profit and charitable entities such as Anxiety Gaming and Stack-Up.org to try and spread the love of our passion to those who yearn for it. It has never been our intention to sow discord or undermine the efforts of those who earnestly dedicate their lives trying to stem the tides of the many issues our community faces. It is disheartening to us that our name has been attached to a campaign that contradicts our principles, and to that end we would like to announce the end of our relationship with Bully Hunters.

Although our engagement with this particular campaign ends here, we would like to express that our commitment to furthering causes that support those in need will not. However, we will ensure that proper due diligence is exercised from this point forward so that the Vertagear name is not attached to anything that may undermine the community and our brand ever again. We hope that the community will not see this occurrence as a means to undercut the prevalence of cyberbullying, but rather, take from it that it does exist, and that it may come from anyone, and happen to anyone.

With a heavy heart,
The Vertagear Team " - Vertagear Facebook Account

(I haven't read this yet. Reading it in Discord)

"SteelSeries consider the campaign to have been so damaging to their brand they are currently in discussions about what action they take next as they believe the marketers "misrepresented" the level of SteelSeries involvement." - As per Richard Lewis on twitter.

Sounds like they might actually legally bully the Bully Hunters.

@>Cytos, de lieve goede synth http://archive.is/ZnVnM Interesting...

Apparently Bully Hunters, according to a tertiary source (Richard Lewis) citing a Secondary (Steel Series), was created by FCB Chicago, a marketing firm.

this seems like a fad with how quick it went from 0-100 back to 0.

It was a lame stunt that got the shit smacked out of it. It's in fallout stage now.

I'm looking at the Facebook page for some of the sponsors, I assure you it's not over on there.

https://youtu.be/jYren919axg

^the YouTube shooter

Found in her car by the police before the shooting

haha watching the police try use a phone....

Absolutely no red flags

stuff like not knowing new number, not immediately knowing where your ID is could be put down to sleep deprevation

Has WW3 started yet?

nah, just CW2

why is everyone exagerating?

syria is a small chip, why would WW3 start because of it?

Why would WW1 start because some dude got assassinated?

Syria was bombed before, this is not a big enough trigger

if WW3 didn't start in 2014, it won't start now from the same action

Too many alliances in one place so bad things can happen fast

_can_, yes

still improbable that it will though

Can’t I just shitpost about WW3?

there's been too many people not shitposting talking about WW3, I'm just wondering if they are doing it for views or if they actually believe it

It could start if enough disinformation about the cause and the aggressor is spread around.

if it's the latter, I'm interested in their reasoning

Tbh Alex Jones freak out was great