Popular digital media companies BuzzFeed and Vox Media have threatened to withdraw from the South by Southwest festival after two panel discussions about harassment and the online gaming community were cancelled due to threats of violence, NBC News reported.
The festival — known as SXSW — said it had hoped that hosting the two panels "SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community" and "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games" would lead to a "valuable exchange of ideas."
But the popular festival, to be held in Austin, Texas in March, said in a blog post Monday it had received "numerous threats of on-site violence" related to the programs in the week since the March 2016 SXSW Interactive event panels were announced. The festival did not detail the nature of the threats.
BuzzFeed staffers had planned to speak at or moderate six panels at SXSW.
