In the wake of the sexism scandal involving video game publisher Activision Blizzard, a new incident has come to light: In 2018, an employee allegedly installed two video cameras in the bathroom of an office building. According to an internal report, an employee contacted the police.
This is the situation:
- An agency of the State of California is suing Activision Blizzard for discrimination against women: They are reportedly paid less and treated worse than men at Activision Blizzard. Additionally, there have been cases of sexual harassment at Blizzard.
- For a week, there has been a discussion about Activision Blizzard. Employees report on incidents from their time at Blizzard. It was reported that a key WoW employee was fired in 2020 for sexual harassment.
- Now an uncomfortable incident from 2018 has surfaced.
Where did this happen? The bathroom incident did not take place in California, but in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. There is a QA department of Activision Blizzard: They handle quality assurance for games, hunt for bugs and issues; think of them as professional alpha testers.
2 Video Cameras Found in the “Unisex” Bathroom
This is what happened there: On August 23, 2018, a man came to the local police station and showed them a memo from the HR department. It stated that someone had “installed a recording device without authorization” in the unisex bathrooms of the office building and Activision Blizzard was initiating an internal investigation.
A police detective went to Activision Blizzard the next day and learned that an employee had discovered two cameras in the bathrooms. The cameras were removed and sent to California for investigation.
The cameras were installed in a way that they monitored the bathrooms.
The police quickly found out who the culprit was. An employee had purchased “MICRO SD cards, waterproof camcorders, and batteries,” which matched the cameras in the bathrooms.
When confronted with the evidence, the suspect admitted to installing the cameras about 3 weeks prior. He was an IT employee.
Employee Fired Immediately for “Despicable Behavior,” Security Measures Strengthened
This is what Activision Blizzard says: In a statement to the U.S. site Waypoint, they said: When the incident was reported, they initiated an internal investigation, removed all cameras, and notified the authorities.
Once the authorities identified the culprit, Activision Blizzard fired him for his “despicable behavior.” The company then hired crisis consultants to speak with employees and tightened their security measures.
This is how it turned out: The employee pleaded guilty to invasion of privacy and received probation. However, he violated it and had to attend a program for sex offenders.
As part of the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, several past incidents are now coming to light, which are being used as evidence that there have been simmering issues beneath the surface for a long time:
A 10-year-old video could be a downfall for the Blizzard CEO
