Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Gaming Company Razer Drops Streamer for Calling Men Trash, Says It's 'Hate Speech'

Gabriela Cattuzzo, a streamer that primarily broadcasts on Facebook from Brazil, has been dropped from gaming peripheral maker Razer's influencer program after she tweeted that "men are trash," which Razer Brazil said counted as "hate speech."

Last week, Cattuzzo tweeted a photo of herself riding a mechanical bull, to which a user on Twitter replied saying "you can ride me as much as you want." Cattuzzo responded to the user, saying "There's always an asshole to say shit and sexualize women, even when the woman is making a joke, right? That's why men are trash."

Cattuzzo later added that "non-shitty men are the exception" and "not the majority." Cattuzzo's tweets, which were written in Portuguese, have since been deleted. The Twitter user's original tweet is still online.

The tweet went viral and Cattuzzo began receiving harassment online, including on a Brazilian dark web forum called Dogolachan. During this time, Cattuzzo's harassers posted clips of an old Twitch stream where she trash talks a viewer that asked a question. Cattuzzo has since apologized for the comments.

On June 24, Razer posted a statement on Twitter addressing the situation. "Razer Brazil reinforces that the opinion of its influencers does not reflect, necessarily, the opinion of the business, which is totally against any type of discrimination be it of sex, religion, political party or whatever type of intolerance and extremism," a company representative wrote. "We have been since the beginning, as gamers, confronted with all types of preconceptions and stereotypes, and we will continue to fight so that this type of situation won't repeat itself."

Razer's said that it would not renew Cattuzzo's contract when it expired next week. Ahead of Razer's post, Cattuzzo apologized for reacting to the Twitter user's comment, but noted that she is not sorry for defending herself. In an earlier tweet, she explained: "Most of the comments I receive are criticisms linked to being a woman and not other factors," she wrote. She added that most of the comments she receives on social media are like that.

Cattuzzo has since posted on Twitter that she is stepping away from social media after her personal information was posted online, including threats to herself and her family. VICE has reached out to Cattuzzo, as well as Razer's North American and Brazillian offices, for more information. We haven't heard back from anyone by publication time.



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