Activision Blizzard claims to have found no evidence of systematic abuse

Activision Blizzard has been using a variety of for some time allegations of abuse confronted. Among them are influential people like the CEO of the company Bobby Kotick. At least since detailed research by the Wall Street Journal at the end of 2021, there has been repeated speculation about Kotick’s future at Activision Blizzard. After all, he knowingly ignored systematic abuse in his company for years. Now, shortly before a shareholders’ meeting, the company speaks up and announces that it has not found any evidence of misconduct by its own management. To write it down again: The investigation that Activision Blizzard himself commissioned, came to the conclusion that it is at Activision Blizzard there has been no systematic discrimination for years and this has not been tolerated or ignored by the company’s executive floor. Not surprisingly, the value of this conclusion is already being questioned by many.

How did the result come about?

According to the company, external consultants were sought to objectively analyze the cases and the company’s policies. It is not known according to which criteria these consultants were selected and how many documents were ultimately made available to them. While the report admits that Cases of sexist abuse there have been, but this is not a systematic problem. In addition, the top management did not knowingly ignore sexist abuse in the company.

The result of the external consultant Gilbert Casellas also came to the conclusion that there was no systematic abuse at Activision Blizzard between September 1, 2016 and December 31, 2021. According to him, the amount of misconduct at Activsion Blizzard is actually relatively small, given the size of the company.

The DFEH and the media

While announcing some new credos for Activision Blizzard, they took the opportunity to comment on how their company is portrayed in the media. One speaks of “unrelenting media criticism“, which would falsely associate a small group of individuals with a multitude of innocent employees. The indictment by the California Labor Protection Agency, the Department of Fair Employment and Housingshare responsibility for this.