Activision Blizzard CEO audaciously claims that sexism and harassment problems were made up by an 'aggressive labor movement' trying to 'destabilize the company'
In a new and frankly embarrassing interview with Variety, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said there's actually never been a problem with «systemic» harassment at the company, and that reports of such things were mainly the result of unions trying to cause trouble.
2021 was a very bad year for Activision Blizzard. In July of that year, California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing—now known as the Civil Rights Department—filed a lawsuit alleging widespread discrimination and sexual harassment at the company; that was followed by other investigations, the departure of numerous high-level employees, apologies, fines, multiple additional lawsuits, and significant pushback from employees, who founded the ABK Workers Alliance to help drive unionization efforts and bring about other meaningful change at the company.
Despite all of that, Activision Blizzard's board of directors said in June 2022 that, after conducting its own internal investigation, there was no evidence of systemic gender-based misconduct at the studio. Now, Kotick is not only sticking to that story, he's taking it a step further by pointing the finger at labor organizers.
«We've had every possible form of investigation done,» Kotick said. «And we did not have a systemic issue with harassment—ever. We didn't have any of what were mischaracterizations reported in the media. But what we did have was a very aggressive labor movement working hard to try and destabilize the company.»
That's certainly audacious, but it fits a new approach Kotick is apparently taking: He told Variety that his mistake when the allegations about widespread misconduct at Activision Blizzard first came to light was not forcefully defending the company and himself against
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