Sexual Harassment

Developer Tells Her Story Publicly as Hacker Community Struggles to Address Sexual Assault

After several attendees of this year’s Chaos Communication Congress (CCC) in Germany said organizers have continued to downplay or ignore issues of harassment and sexual assault, Chelsea Komlo, an open-source software developer and Tor contributor, is speaking out publicly about the rape and assault she says she experienced in an attempt to help combat the…

Microsoft Is Making It Easier for Some Employees to Sue Over Sexual Harassment and Gender Discrimination

Sexual misconduct allegations have rocked Silicon Valley’s world this year. An outpouring of accusations have shone an unavoidable spotlight on the industry’s systemic issues, and yet before Susan Fowler opened the floodgates, it was rare to witness a public claim filed against a company. That’s largely because most major tech companies force their employees into…

The Most Significant Science Setbacks of 2017

Scientific progress doesn’t always exactly look like, well, progress. Progress comes in fits and starts. Sometimes things get in the way—be they harassment, politics, or just plain bad science. These were the worst setbacks to science in 2017. Donald J. Trump Or more specifically, the battle that the Trump administration has led against science through…

Flash and Supergirl Showrunner Andrew Kreisberg Fired in Wake of Sexual Harassment Allegations

Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg—who has credits across Arrow, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl at the CW—has been terminated by Warner Bros. after a lengthy investigation into a series of sexual harassment allegations over the last month. Allegations surrounding Kreisberg’s conduct toward female co-workers first emerged in an extensive Variety report earlier this month, prompting…

DC Comics and Warner Bros. Have Fired Editor Eddie Berganza Over Claims of Sexual Harassment

Over the weekend, DC Comics suspended group editor Eddie Berganza after BuzzFeed published a report with interviews from multiple women accusing Berganza of having sexually harassed them while working for the comics publisher. Today, DC announced that it had officially let Berganza go. According to BuzzFeed, DC put out a statement insisting that they were…

DC Comics Has Suspended Editor Eddie Berganza Amidst Allegations of Sexual Harassment

This week, BuzzFeed News published the accounts of multiple women who alleged that they were sexually harassed by DC comics group editor Eddie Berganza while working for the publisher. Today, DC acknowledged the accusations being leveled against Berganza and made its first official statement. According to an e-mail sent out on Saturday afternoon, DC has…

Netflix Severs Ties With Kevin Spacey, Effective Immediately

Days after halting production on the sixth and final season of House of Cards, Netflix has reportedly opted to cut star Kevin Spacey loose immediately amid allegations the actor sexually assaulted actor Anthony Rapp while Rapp was 14 years old. A Netflix spokesman told Gizmodo in a statement that “Netflix will not be involved with…

Tech Writer Robert Scoble Accused of Sexual Harassment, Assault by Multiple Women

Over the course of the past few weeks, the media world has been experiencing a bit of a wake-up call about rampant sexual harassment throughout the industry after an anonymously sourced list of allegations circulated on Google Drive. At the same time, growing numbers of women have been using the hashtag #MeToo to talk about…

Embattled CEO Travis Kalanick Takes Leave of Absence in Wake of Uber’s Sexual Harassment Investigation

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick will take a leave of absence from the company he founded and the company will make changes to its culture, following a highly-anticipated investigation into sexual harassment and toxic workplace culture at the ride-hailing startup. “The ultimate responsibility, for where we’ve gotten and how we’ve gotten here rests on my shoulders,” Kalanick…

Uber Exec Dismissed After Sharing Rape Victim’s Medical Records

After an Uber driver raped a customer in India, an Uber executive obtained the victim’s medical records and shared them with the company’s CEO, Travis Kalanick, and its senior vice president, Emil Michael. The executives then questioned the medical record and suggested that it was a sabotage attempt by a competitor, Recode reports. Eric Alexander,…

In Chunri, a Woman Rises Up to Combat Mumbai’s Underworld of Human Trafficking and Sex Slavery

In Kamathipura, Mumbai’s oldest red-light district, it’s estimated that there are currently some 20,000 sex workers doing business out of brothels. Oftentimes the “women” who are offered up by pimps and madams are are actually young girls who’ve been sold into sex slavery. In Baber K. Khan and M. Basit Ansari’s Chunri: The Dancing Death,…

Uber’s Investigation Into Sexual Harassment Is Off to a Really Bad Start

It looks like Uber’s toxic work culture is so awful, it’s going to take even longer for the company to fully investigate it. According to a new Recode report, Uber just extended its internal investigation into sexual harassment claims at the company. The internal report is now expected by the end of May. The investigation…

Former Google Engineer Blasts Company’s HR Practices After Sexual Harassment Revelation

Earlier today, Recode reported that Uber had asked its new SVP of engineering, Amit Singhal to resign after he failed to disclose the circumstances involved in his departure from Google. According to Recode, Singhal resigned from Google in early 2016 after an investigation into a sexual harassment claim brought against him by another employee. Singhal…

Ex-Uber Engineer Says the Company Has a Culture of Sexual Harassment

Uber is not known for treating its drivers particularly well, but it gets worse: According to allegations from an ex-engineer Susan J. Fowler, the ridesharing app has a culture of misogyny, and threatened to fire her after she reported sexual harassment. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has already responded to the allegations, saying in a statement…

Berkeley Professor Found Guilty of Sexual Harassment Resigns

Geoff Marcy, the prominent astronomer found guilty of sexually harassing several female students between 2001 and 2010, has resigned from his tenured position on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley. The action comes in the wake of a growing outcry over the university’s lack of sanctions against him for his misconduct, including an…

A San Francisco jury has ruled against all four claims of gender discrimination and retaliation by termination brought by Ellen Pao against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, in what many are calling a landmark case for Silicon Valley. Pao is currently the interim CEO of Reddit. [Valleywag]

Microsoft Exec Accused of a Really, Really Awful Remark about Japan

Microsoft’s Michael Mercieca is in trouble for sexual harassment, and the ensuing investigation has kicked up a potential shitstorm for a fellow employee over some awful comments about the Japanese tsunami, the Telegraph reports. Thanks, Mike! “I would have zero pity for Japan. I would push them right under the bus and create another tsunami.”…

Ousted HP CEO Mark Hurd Watched Jodie Fisher’s Racy Videos Online

Sure, her Playboy spread was pretty sexy, but a CEO really shouldn’t be googling* one of his hired marketing contractors whilst on the job. Computer analysis of Mark Hurd’s computer has discovered he watched some of Fisher’s saucy videos. https://gizmodo.com/the-playboy-spread-of-the-woman-who-took-down-hps-ceo-5610225 Not only has the true nature of Hurd’s “crime” come out today, but also details…

Is It Time To Add Your Boss To This Sexual Harassment Registry?

Whether he was a perverted old man, a cruel taskmaster, or just plain annoying, we’ve all had a bad boss at some point. There’s a new website though—complete with a sexual harassment registry—that lets you vent about him. The idea behind eBossWatch is to keep track of bad employers through user submissions. Basically you can…