The company “Vertagear” produces gaming chairs. Through Twitter, they attempted to reach the gaming audience and posted a humorous tweet suggesting that female Twitch streamers highlight themselves more than the games. After accusations of sexism against the company, the manager of the social media account was dismissed.
Which tweet caused the trouble? The Vertagear Twitter account posted a meme on July 18. It featured 2 Twitch streamers:
- In the case of the male streamer, the video game took up 95% of the screen; the streamer himself was only small in a facecam at the bottom left
- In the case of the female streamer, she took up about 75% of the screen, with the actual game only visible in the bottom right corner
The tweet implied that female streamers allegedly stage themselves more prominently than their male counterparts. The actual game was to be considered mere background for the female streamer, while it is central for the male streamer.
The tweet is a variation of a meme that has circulated in various forms (via 9gag).
The Twitter account wrote “Is that correct” accompanied by 3 laughing emojis.
Streamer calls for boycott of gaming chairs
This was the shitstorm: The streamer and Twitch partner Lowco (107,000 Twitch followers) called for a boycott of the company behind the tweet:
“Hey, if any streamer gives free advertising to this sexist company by sitting in one of their chairs, they might want to think about removing the Vertagear logo.”
Lowco
Further tweets were subsequently posted,
- mocking the company’s account for a pink gaming chair
- announcing that the company’s Twitter account will simulate flying to his ex in the “Microsoft Flight Simulator” to fight her.
- more “man/woman” memes (via twitter).
Under the tweet of the streamers, some Twitter users did announce they would boycott Vertagear chairs. The accusation against the post was that it generalized: “All female streamers are like this!” – which was deemed sexist.
Some users also said: There was some truth to the tweet about female Twitch streamers. One Twitter user posted a clip of Twitch streamer Alinity, in which she really streams with the “75% Me – 25% Game” setup.
The tweet from Vertagear was deleted. However, this initially caused even more trouble. Now it was said that the company had not even admitted its mistake.
Vertagear apologizes, but that’s not enough for critics
This is how Vertagear reacted: Later that same day, Vertagear did reach out to the public on Twitter. They said they wanted to be “funny and interesting” on social media, but “prejudice and discrimination” were the opposite of what they aimed to achieve.
They had “hurt many people with the last tweet.” They took responsibility for it and implemented new guidelines. The incident was a “real lesson” for the company, they said.
They thanked for the feedback and said they hoped people would now accept the sincere apology.
This was the reaction: This apology from Vertagear was however criticized again. Apparently, some did not find the apology sufficient:
- They found the sexism at Vertagear systemic and not just present in the last postings.
- There were demands to dismiss the social media manager.
- Questions arose as to how many women actually work in the social media team.
Vertagear fires social media manager, likely hires a woman
This is how it ended: After the first apology was apparently not enough, there was a second apology during the night from yesterday to today: Now Vertagear called the tweet “tasteless” and “unacceptable” (via twitter).
Over the years, a certain language has crept into the social media accounts, which they “definitely are not proud of.” They have now decided, after some contemplation, to dismiss the person responsible for these posts. They now want to pay more attention to “gender diversity,” even in overseeing social media posts.
What is the reaction now? However, for some angry users on Twitter, even this measure is not quite enough. One user says: Now someone is being fired who was apparently just doing their job, without any guidelines. The real problem is the deeply hurting company culture.
Another user says: The “social media guy” is now merely being made a scapegoat.
Others accuse the company of only reacting after the shitstorm. They apparently had no problem with the sexist behavior the whole time. Only when the shitstorm threatened the “profits” did they decide to take action.
Twitter is an important channel for many companies in the gaming sector to reach gaming fans. Finding the right voice there often proves to be difficult:
LoL: Team hires Satan as a professional tweeter – Twitter bans him
