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Video game maker employee alleges manager threatened revenge porn
Video Game Oct 10, 2022
Courtesy of Michelle Ding
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Video game maker Activision Blizzard is being sued by another female employee complaining of sexual harassment in the workplace, this time by a plaintiff who alleges a then-manager threatened to commit revenge porn against her.
“Activision Blizzard is a massive video game company with a massive sexual harassment problem,” according to the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit brought Friday by the plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe.
The suit alleges sexual battery, sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment, gender discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Doe seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages against the company and former manager Miguel Vega.
An Activision Blizzard representative issued a statement Monday regarding the lawsuit.
“We take all concerns seriously,” the statement read. “We will be presenting our response through the legal process. Our commitment to our employees’ well-being and intolerance for misconduct are unwavering.”
The company’s open “frat boy atmosphere” has fostered rampant sexism, harassment and discrimination with 700 reported incidents occurring under CEO Robert Kotick’s watch, according to the suit.
Doe met Vega in 2009 or 2010, before her work at Activision Blizzard, and they soon formed a virtual friendship in which she sent him “compromising photos” of herself, a decision she now regrets, the suit states. The relationship ended when Doe met her future husband in 2011, according to the suit.
Vega helped Doe get independent contractor work at Activision Blizzard in 2016 and the company later hired her for as a community engagement coordinator for the Player Support Department in 2020, the suit states.
While at work, Doe was repeatedly groped by Vega and he often attempted to kiss her, the suit states.
“All of Mr. Vega’s sexual advances upon Ms. Doe were unwelcomed,” the suit states. “After each time she rejected him, he’d assure her that, One day it'll happen' orOne day you’ll give in,”‘ the suit states.
Vega also belittled and insulted Doe, telling her that her ideas were terrible and that she was failing “a job a monkey could do” and that her opinions did not matter, the suit states.
“He never missed an opportunity to make her feel small,” according to the suit, which further states that Vega dismissed her as being too sensitive when she told him his comments were hurtful.
Vega as recently as August 2021 made one of many threats to release Doe’s compromising photos, the suit alleges.
“Maybe I’ll blackmail you with those pictures I have to get you to leave your husband so you can come stay with me,” Vega told Doe, according to her suit.
That same month, Doe reported Vega’s alleged revenge porn threat to management and Vega was fired the next month, the suit states. But Activision ratified Vega’s conduct by allegedly failing to take immediate and appropriate corrective action, the suit alleges.
Doe has suffered physical pain, mental suffering, humiliation and loss of enjoyment of life, the suit states.
Other sexual harassment suits also have been filed by women against Activision Blizzard, including one in March by another Jane Doe who alleges she suffered a backlash for complaining about sexual harassment and discrimination while working in the IT department. Her lawsuit demands include the removal of Kotick as CEO.
Updated Oct. 10, 2022, 10:44 p.m.
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