Links:

NBC News
The Verge
Buzzfeed

Apparently there was going to be a Panel on Online Harassment at SXSW and was cancelled due to threats of violence (which to me would constitute as harassment of sorts as well).
The festival — known as SXSW — said it had hoped that hosting the two panels “SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community” and “Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games” would lead to a “valuable exchange of ideas.”

However, it said SXSW had received “numerous threats of on-site violence” related to the programs in the week since the March 2016 SXSW Interactive event panels were announced. It did not detail the nature of the threats.

Because of this action Buzzfeed and Vox/The Verge has pulled out of the festival. Here’s BuzzFeed’s Statement:

Dear Hugh,
We were disturbed to learn yesterday that you canceled two panels, including one on harassment in gaming, in response to the sort of harassment the panel sought to highlight.
We hope you will reconsider that decision, and reinstate the panels.

Digital harassment — of activists of all political stripes,
journalists, and women in those fields or participating in virtually
any other form of digital speech — has emerged as an urgent challenge
for the tech companies for whom your conference is an important forum.
Those targets of harassment, who include our journalists, do important
work in spite of these threats.

BuzzFeed has participated deeply in SXSW for years, and our staffers
are scheduled to speak on or moderate a half-dozen panels at SXSW
2016. We will feel compelled to withdraw them if the conference can’t
find a way to do what those other targets of harassment do every day —
to carry on important conversations in the face of harassment. We hope
you can support the principle of free speech and engage a vital
issue facing us and other constituents on the event.

Fortunately, the conference is five months away. We are confident that
you can put in place appropriate security precautions between now and
then, and our security staff would be happy to advise on those
measures.

We look forward to your reply.

Ze Frank
President
BuzzFeed Motion Pictures

Dao Nguyen
Publisher
BuzzFeed

Ben Smith
Editor-in-Chief
BuzzFeed

And Vox Media’s

Harassment is an issue Vox Media takes extremely seriously. As a digital media company, our journalists often face online harassment and find themselves on the receiving end of threats. We support our staff when they encounter this kind of abuse while continuing to do the work that can result in it, and want to continue an open dialogue about how best to do so.
By approving the panels in question, SXSW assumed responsibility for related controversies and security threats. By canceling the panels, they have cut off an opportunity to discuss a real and urgent problem in media and technology today. We have reached out to SXSW organizers and ask that they host a safe and open discussion of these issues, rather than avoid them. Vox Media will not be participating in this year’s festival unless its organizers take this issue seriously and take appropriate steps to correct. We will work to find an alternative forum for this conversation and invite others who feel the same to join us.

I approve of these measures actually. Harassment in this world has become insane lately due in part to the GamerGate. The fact that there are threats being posed because of trying to change the environment of harassment within the Gaming industry/community is insane. So I applaud these two companies dropping out.