THQ Nordic has faced waves of criticism after holding an AMA session on 8chan yesterday, a highly controversial image board that has hosted content including child pornography and hate speech.
The publisher faced a stream of backlash over social media just half an hour after announcing the AMA, to which it responded, ’the opportunity was here and we took it,’ adding, ‘we got approached in a very friendly and polite manner and were assured, said person (shoutout to Mark) will take care of the nasty stuff. so, here we are.’
Unfortunately, the AMA itself didn’t exactly go smoothly. Around 45 minutes into the session, the discussion was hit by a deluge of pornographic images as well as references to Hitler, Nazis, GamerGate, and other NSFW content.
Speaking in a statement issued to GI.biz, Philipp Brock, PR and marketing director for THQ Nordic, commented:
‘I personally agreed to this AMA without doing my proper due diligence to understand the history and the controversy of the site. I do not condone child pornography, white supremacy, or racism in any shape or form. I am terribly sorry for the short-sightedness of my (!) decision, and promise to be far more vigorous in my assessment of these activities in the future. This was not about being edgy, this blew up and I very much regret to have done it in the first place.’
He was later pressed on why he kept the AMA going after receiving such harsh criticism, to which he replied: ‘Yes. I was fucking overwhelmed with a plethora of different emotions to be honest.’
‘I am not a white supremacist, nor into child pornography, nor do I think this AMA was smart in hindsight and if I could, I would undo,’ he said.
