The SXSW Interactive 2016 festival began announcing panels and discussions last week, but two of those—one specifically about online harassment and abuse and one with apparent ties to the GamerGate hashtag—were canceled on Monday due to "threats of on-site violence."

After a massive outcry about the cancellations, which included threats from Buzzfeed and Vox Media to pull their support from SXSW, that decision was reversed on Friday—and then some. SXSW Interactive Director Hugh Forrest posted an announcement that the two canceled panels would not only return but be rolled into an all-day Online Harassment Summit—which, at this point, includes 25 announced speakers in all.

"By canceling two sessions we sent an unintended message that SXSW not only tolerates online harassment but condones it, and for that we are truly sorry," Forrest wrote in the announcement. "While we made the decision in the interest of safety for all of our attendees, canceling sessions was not an appropriate response. We have been working with the authorities and security experts to determine the best way to proceed."

The previously canceled panels would have weighted the explicit concerns and recommendations of anti-harassment advocates with a conversation about open-ended topics like "the current social/political landscape in the gaming community" and "the journalistic integrity of gaming’s journalists." The latter panel's moderator eventually took to GamerGate-affiliated forums to seek support for its content. Forrest noted that with the panels' reinstatement, SXSW would "work with both groups to develop the most productive focus for their appearances," but based on the list of 19 new speakers, we expect the Online Harassment Summit will now focus largely on the harassment half of the original plan.

Those speakers will include known anti-harassment advocates like Congresswoman Katherine Clark, Stop Online Violence Against Women founder Shireen Mitchell, and game developer Brianna Wu, along with former Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, former White House video game czar Mark DeLoura, and representatives from Facebook, the ACLU, and the Anti-Defamation League.

One returning panelist, Online Abuse Prevention Initiative founder Randi Harper, took to her Twitter account on Friday to praise SXSW for creating the summit, though she added that while she had encouraged SXSW to also reinstate the GamerGate-linked panel, she "didn't expect them to be at the summit" and denounced the movement's supporters for "being the ones that perpetrate" online harassment.

The Online Harassment Summit will be livestreamed across the Internet and is free for non-attendees to watch.