American tax dollars are now going to defending Sweet Baby inc. in the wake of backlash to an employee’s harassment campaign against a Steam user.
Take This is a mental health oriented non-profit that emphasizes “the unique needs of the game development community and embraces the diverse cultures and issues of the game community”.
In a recent post by Take This, the organization labeled the backlash Sweet Baby is facing as “Gamergate 2” and blaming the lion’s share of harassment on gamers, despite the initial harassment coming from Sweet Baby employees.
Department of Homeland Security-funded Take This just put out a document demanding that game companies denounce "Gamergate 2".
Okay, now shit is going to hit the fan. pic.twitter.com/v0jWWV1mGb
— Lyle 🇹🇼👍 (@Lyde15) March 11, 2024
Take This went on to use their platform to call on the industry to “denounce Gamergate”, despite Sweet Baby Inc. Detected seemingly having no affiliation with it.
Discord, Steam, and X have been the predominant platforms where the abuse and harassment has been taking place. In these spaces, lists of game studios, companies, and associated organizations are being circulated for targeting by members of the mob…
As scholars and journalists have noted, the targeted harassment, hate, and cultural norms that were at the heart of Gamergate in the mid 2010’s never went away.
As for the government ties to Take This, the Department of Homeland Security at least partially funds the organization. You can see their disclaimer for yourself here.
This work is made possible by a grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS # EMW-2022-GR-00036).
Earlier this month, we reported on the Sweet Baby Inc. Detected Steam curator which informs users if Sweet Baby has been involved with a game. Sweet Baby employee Chris Kindred criticized the group to their followers, they went even further by encouraging others to mass flag not only the curator, but the curator’s personal Steam account. This was seemingly done with the intent to punish him by taking away the games he bought and paid for.
You can check out the Sweet Baby Inc detected curator here.
