THQ Nordic fails to acquire a good PR manager, hosts AMA on website delisted from Google for child porn
“We're doing an 8chan AMA and we have no idea why. Come join us!” - this was the tweet that started it all.
Last night, THQ Nordic posted the tweet above while simultaneously linking out to one of the worst places on the internet. The tweet and link is still live. There’s a chance you’ll end up on a watchlist if you click it. Don't click it.
The site in question, 8chan, is known for hosting child porn, creating harassment campaigns, white supremacy, and plenty more vile s**t - not that you’d need any more after listing those first three issues. According to THQ Nordic, the company decided to host the AMA because a guy called Mark asked them to. Shoutout to Mark!
The company has since put out a statement apologising for the AMA, blaming it on PR and marketing director Philipp Brock, who claims he didn’t do his due diligence. Presumably this means he never even attempted to Google the site once before jumping in.
Here’s the statement, courtesy of our friends at GI.biz:
"I personally agreed to this AMA without doing my proper due diligence to understand the history and the controversy of the site. I do not condone child pornography, white supremacy, or racism in any shape or form. I am terribly sorry for the short-sightedness of my (!) decision, and promise to be far more vigorous in my assessment of these activities in the future. This was not about being edgy, this blew up and I very much regret to have done it in the first place."
It also doesn’t help that the tweet with the shoutout to Mark mentions taking “care of the nasty stuff”, which makes it look like Brock did, in fact, know that it was a shithole. It also doesn’t help that THQ Nordic’s most recent ‘like’ on its official Twitter account is this:
There are also lots of tweets from industry people pointing to posts where THQ Nordic got involved in banter about “big tiddied lolis”. I would screenshot the chat but I’d rather not have to subdue my PC in a vat of acid.
In a further statement to GI.biz, Brock clarified, “I am not a white supremacist, nor into child pornography, nor do I think this AMA was smart in hindsight and if I could, I would undo.” When you have to clarify that you're not into child porn or white supremacy, you've probably failed at your public relations job.