Stories of sexual harassment, abuse, and inappropriate behaviors are unfortunately not new, even in the gaming community, but this time around, several big gaming companies have done drastic measures to ensure that their community is safe for anyone.
Rattled by Harassment Allegations
In a past report by Tech Times, streaming platform Twitch has made the decision to ban several streamers from the platform, even those who have massive followings, and will reportedly issue permanent suspensions after their investigation.
The decision came after dozens of people, mostly women, shared their stories on Twitter.
Now, Electronic Arts or EA has also shared their statement regarding these issues through a blog post that they have published on their website.
"In recent days, we've seen and heard a number of disturbing stories around sexual harassment, abuse, and misconduct in our industry," the statement says.
The company decided to post the statement to make their position clear to everyone: the actions are not okay, whether in the EA's community, in the gaming community, or anywhere else.
Read Also : Dr. Disrespect is Gone From Twitch Days After Platform's Massive Ban of Streamers With Harassment Reports
Taking the Reports Seriously
"Electronic Arts supports everyone that has come forward to report abuse, and we are asking anyone who has experienced any harassment or sexual misconduct in our community to come forward," the statement read.
EA also wanted to ensure their followers that they are taking every allegation seriously and that they are investigating each one of them.
The company wishes to provide a safe space for everyone, especially those who want to come forward and report their own story as well as get the necessary actions that ensure their story will not happen again to them or anyone within the community.
Following that, they have provided the details on how gamers and EA employees could report such cases in-game and online.
More Work is Needed
From the stories that they have heard and read, the company believes that it shows how much more work is needed to be done for the gaming community, which is also what they had previously said when they introduced the Positive Player Charter Initiative.
For those who are not aware, the Positive Player Charter Initiative is a set of new rules that EA believes could help combat primary problems within the gaming community, namely racism, homophobia, and sexism.
They introduced the new set of rules in light of recent events surrounding racism.
"This is a part of our commitment to Positive Play, and we intend to continue to act on it," the company concluded.
Digital Trends reached out to Electronic Arts for further comments, but they only linked to the posted statement, and it seems like the company has said all they wanted to say about the issue for now.
Twitch and EA aren't the only companies that were hugely impacted by the onslaught of sexual harassment allegations on Twitter.
In a report by Bloomberg, Ubisoft, which is behind several well-known games, including the Assassin's Creed series, has also been involved in several internal sexual harassment allegations, so they decided to suspend the people involved.
