The
Failbetter
Report
The networked harassment of a British video game developer and his fiancée
Cancelled by the less than 1 %
Less than a fraction of one per cent (0.17%) of 6,052 tweets about Alexis Kennedy involved first-hand allegations of inappropriate behaviour. Nevertheless, 36.1% (1 in 3) of replies judged him to be a “predator,” an “exploiter” or an “abuser.”
Commercial rivalry at heart of the Twitter campaign
Nearly a quarter of those tweets (21.93% or 1,327) came from people who had worked at a rival business, Failbetter Games, which Kennedy had previously criticised over its “toxic” work culture and redundancies.
“Me Too” and the female victim
We identified 339 tweets specifically targeting Lottie Bevan, Kennedy’s partner, which were misogynistic, sexist and/or designed to belittle her personally and professionally. 14.45% mocked her for speaking out about being cyberbullied, while 11.80% claimed she was enabling abuse, gaslighting or exploiting.