THQ Nordic decided to host an AMA on a Google-delisted website full of child abuse imagery

THQ Nordic did a very bad thing. Instead of hosting their recent AMA on a website like Reddit, Nordic’s Q&A took place on 8chan.

As a haven for ex-4chan users annoyed at the site’s censorship and moderation, 8chan is a website infamously known for illegal images. While there are surely some innocent posts there, 8chan also includes frequent hate speech, swatting and harassment campaigns.

According to THQ Nordic’s official Twitter account, a moderator was in place to remove illegal content. If anything, this just tells us that they were well away of the site’s reputation.

https://twitter.com/THQNordic/status/1100456177031356416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1100456177031356416&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vg247.com%2F2019%2F02%2F27%2Fthq-nordic-8chan%2F

In a statement to Gamesindustry.biz, PR and Marketing Director Phillip Brock has put the event down as lack of “due diligence”.

“I personally agreed to this AMA without doing my proper due diligence to understand the history and the controversy of the site,” Brock said.

“I do not condone child pornography, white supremacy, or racism in any shape or form. I am terribly sorry for the short-sightedness of my (!) decision, and promise to be far more vigorous in my assessment of these activities in the future. This was not about being edgy, this blew up and I very much regret to have done it in the first place.”

With THQ Nordic’s current push to become a publishing powerhouse, this is certainly a bad look for them.

After purchasing so many IPs and with new IPs such as Biomutant on the way, there are now many that are unwilling to support the company after this event.

This isn’t the only issue we’ve seen with child abuse imagery recently. YouTube is currently suffering from another “adpocalypse” after the discovery of child abuse groups.