We’ve been covering this UN debacle from the outset. I’ve always told you what utter bullshit their “#cyberviolence” report was. After days of hyping it to the moon, even Blowey Zoe Quinn has now come out and distanced herself from this flaming shitpile. Hamburger Harper trashed it as well. Keep in mind, this was only after GamerGate exposed it for the joke it truly was. Even the SJW water-carriers in the media had to back away. All-in-all, it was a stunning success for our cause and for the freedom of the Internet in general.

Recognizing all that, the UN has now come out and apologized. From VICE:

A spokesperson for the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU) apologized for several errors and poorly sourced material in its Broadband Commission Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls Report, and vowed that it would be much improved in a forthcoming revision. What went wrong? To answer that question I spoke with Sarah Parkes, media and public information chief at ITU in Geneva, Switzerland. She is now ultimately responsible for the report and will be the final person to sign off on the revision… “We got a lot of feedback on it and some of it has been very constructive,” she told me over the phone. “Some from academia have contributed research. We are very pleased that the digital environment allows this quite quick collaboration.” (EDITOR’S NOTE: Translation: “We got our asses handed to us and now we have to eat this loss.”) The report has been replaced on its website with bullet points (PDF), which do not mention video games or sexting, but do refer to the heightened risk that women and girls face while online… “Really, the big problem was footnoting which was not up to standard and we very much regret that,” said Parkes. “That is being revised very thoroughly. We are adamant that we will have these [footnotes] all corrected.” (EDITOR’S NOTE: lol) I asked her about the report’s association of violent video games with real world violence. “We’ve had a professor from a university share some of the studies [related to video game violence] with us and that will be reflected in the revised research. It’s a difficult area because there are certainly studies that show no link [to real world violence]. But I think on the other side of the debate there’s still some question because there’s no longitudinal study. This is an area where it’s complicated and I think we need to rely on the psychological studies.” When I asked her what went wrong with the report, she offered an apology. “I think it’s just a product of the terrible scramble around the launch date. It was a hugely busy period for the UN. We apologize very much for the errors and I hope we’ll be able to rectify them. Our priority is to get it back up in 100 percent correct state.”

Don’t show these idiots any sympathy or give them any credit. Is it better they apologized here? Yes. Did they do it for any reason other than their now in-flames reputation? No. It wasn’t like this came from an honest place. Even one of the featured panelists was calling bullshit on the whole endeavor. They didn’t really have much of a choice, to be honest with you. Continuing to stand behind this report would have been a losing endeavor. So now, they’re retooling and trying to put lipstick on a pig. I’m not having it.

https://twitter.com/istheguy/status/651830537502486528

You bastards slandered gamers and did it with one of the biggest media blitzes I’ve seen all year. Now we’re just supposed to say that’s water under the bridge? Fuck off, and take those lying frauds Antia & Zoe with you. They’re cancer and so are you.

Lemme know what you think. I could trash these idiots for another 200 words or so, but I think you get the picture. I’ve got a couple more write-ups to go before the show, so I’m going to once again keep it brisk. I’ll catch you guys again here in a bit.