YouTuber Carl Benjamin, better known as Sargon of Akkad, has lodged a formal complaint to Vidcon’s founders following his abuse at a panel hosted by Feminist Frequency founder Anita Sarkeesian. His mere presence in the panel’s audience was enough to throw her into a fit of rage, with her hurling abusive remarks at the YouTuber, calling him a “garbage human.”
Addressing Vidcon founders Hank and John Green, Sargon cited the event’s Code of Conduct, which expressly prohibits disorderly conduct by attendees under its “harassment” clause, which includes:
behavior that is illegal, unsafe, disruptive, discriminatory or causes excessive discomfort to our attendees or guests.
“Anita Sarkeesian violated Vidcon’s code of conduct by abusing me from the stage,” said Benjamin in a newly released video. “Although you can’t hear it in the video, after receiving this abuse, I just wanted to talk. She dismissed this without consideration and lied to the entire audience claiming that I had either personally harassed her or incited others to do so.”
“As anyone who follows my work who will be able to attest, I have had a completely consistent record of advocating against the public contacting Sarkeesian at all, let alone sending threats. I make two arguments: the first, moral—that it is wrong to send abuse. The second, pragmatic—that she can paint anyone who criticizes her as an abuser in order to avoid the criticism.”
After video of his treatment by Anita went viral on the Internet, Benjamin received massive amounts of abusive remarks directed his way on social media from social justice warriors and feminists who used the term “garbage human” to refer to him.
Benjamin says that her remarks incited a “ceaseless torrent of cyberabuse and harassment from her followers and Twitter, including many content creators with many thousands of followers themselves, also calling me a ‘garbage human.’” The YouTuber says that the abuse lasted throughout the night. He uploaded screenshots of their comments to Imgur.
As if the issue couldn’t become more ironic, Sarkeesian is slated to speak at a panel called “End Cyberbullying,” where she is set to “tackle the tough subject of cyberbullying and offer tactics for combating hate speech, negative mobs, and nasty comments.”
The YouTuber has urged viewers to contact Vidcon’s founders through their publicly available emails to petition for Sarkeesian’s removal from the panel.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.