Sega sues social media user for “excessive slanderous and insulting comments” against employee

Sega has revealed it’s taken legal action against a social media user for harassing one of its employees, warning that it will continue to pursue legal remedies or criminal proceedings should similar occurrences happen in the future.

The company – which published a Consumer Harassment Policy last year – reiterated its stance on social media harassment in a post on its Japanese website. Providing context, it explained it has been dealing with an individual who has made “excessive slanderous and insulting comments on social media against one of our employees” for a “long time”.

After the individual failed to improve their behaviour, Sega continued, the company was granted access to the person’s information through the court. Since then, it’s reached a settlement, with the individual agreeing to “pay damages to our employee, delete the slanderous and insulting comments, and refrain from such actions in the future.”

Sega adds it will take similar measures against anyone that breaks its Customer Harassment Policy in the future. “We consider slanderous acts against employees, such as announcements of violent acts, threats, and intimidation, to be serious human rights issues that damage the dignity of employees and lead to a deterioration of the work environment”, it writes.

“We do not tolerate any harassing behaviour,” it cotinues, “and in order to respect all employees and protect their human rights, we will continue to take appropriate action based on our Customer Harassment Policy when we judge any behaviour to be malicious.” It then suggests customers familiarise themselves with its harassment policy and “refrain from any behaviour that damages the dignity of employees.”

Sega’s announcement comes as the harassment of games industry employees by players continues to be a concern. A survey of 2,300 attendees at last year’s Game Developer Conference revealed 91 percent of respondents believed player harassment and toxicity towards developers was an issue, while 42 percent felt it was a “very serious” issue. 40 percent of developers surveyed had experienced harassment themselves, with women, non-binary people, and members of the LGBT+ community most likely to be targets.