It’s not often that the words “investor note” and “8chan” appear in the same sentence, but then 2019 is a bit of a wild timeline.
The other week, THQ Nordic ventured into the bizarre public forum that is 8chan. You know, the image board that’s been delisted by Google and seized over child pornography, among other things.
The kind of place that, in most timelines, brands wouldn’t normally associate with. Even if said image board sent a very polite invitation, as THQ Nordic explained.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/02/video-game-publisher-apologizes-after-hosting-ama-on-8chan/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/ckp4fucebllao9dm4lhn.png” title=”Video Game Publisher Apologises After Hosting AMA On 8Chan” excerpt=”Edgy marketing decisions have a way of blowing up in companies’ faces, but rarely do they so immediately and spectacularly detonate like this: THQ Nordic, publisher of games like Darksiders III, decided to host an AMA on 8chan, an image board notorious for everything from Gamergate ties to stalking and harassment to child porn. Bafflingly, THQ Nordic thought it would go just fine. Predictably, it did not.”]
Unsurprisingly, that apology didn’t go over too well. So the company has posted a more formal apology to investors, with group chief executive and THQ Nordic co-founder Lars Wingefors saying he condemns “all unethical content this website stands for”.
“Even if no one within the THQ Nordic Group would ever endorse such content, I realise simply appearing there gave an implicit impression that we did.”
The post doesn’t mention that anyone was fired over the incident – Mark is still a really nice guy, after all – but THQ did conduct an internal investigation:
I have spent the past several days conducting an internal investigation into this matter. I assure you that every member of the organisation 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.
Googling “8chan” would be a good place to start for the new policy, you’d think.
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