在SXSW音乐节因涉嫌暴力骚扰而选择关闭展板后，BuzzFeed威胁说，如果展板不恢复，他们将退出该节目。在一封写给SXSW互动总监休·福雷斯特的信中，BuzzFeed的三位著名员工——主编本·史密斯、出版商道·阮和电影公司总裁泽·弗兰克——敦促主办方“支持****原则”，并把小组带回来，其中一个小组讽刺的是关于互联网骚扰的问题。

“我们很不安地获悉，昨天你取消了两个小组，其中一个是游戏骚扰，以回应小组试图强调的那种骚扰，”提供给《边缘》的信中写道BuzzFeed多年来一直深入参与SXSW，我们的员工计划在2016年SXSW的六个座谈会上发言。如果裁谈会找不到其他骚扰目标每天都在做的事情——面对骚扰进行重要对话，我们将不得不撤回这些建议。”

“我们希望你们能支持****的原则，参与一个至关重要的问题。”

昨天被取消的这两个小组都间接地与过去一年的游戏机争议有关。其中一个名为“提高水平：克服游戏中的骚扰”的小组成员在批评了这一运动后成为骚扰的目标。另一个则会讨论游戏和游戏新闻中的“社会政治”问题，有一个普遍支持游戏机的小组，并从游戏机中心Kotaku获得了实际的意见。福雷斯特在一份声明中说，SXSW收到了与其中一人或两人有关的“大量现场暴力威胁”。

BuzzFeed的信对SXSW相当和解。”我们相信，你可以在这段时间内采取适当的安全防范措施，我们的安保人员将很乐意就这些措施提供建议。但它仍然是一个主要的媒体组织，威胁要退出一个主要的媒体和技术节，因为一个话题-主办一个反骚扰小组-这被证明是出乎意料的争议。

BuzzFeed的完整信件如下。

We were disturbed to learn yesterday that you canceled two panels, including one on haras**ent in gaming, in resp***e to the sort of haras**ent the panel sought to highlight.

We hope you will rec***ider that decision, and reinstate the panels.

Digital haras**ent — of activists of all political stripes, journalists, and women in those fields or participating in virtually any other form of digital speech — has emerged as an urgent challenge for the tech companies for whom your conference is an important forum. Those targets of haras**ent, who include our journalists, do important work in spite of these threats.

BuzzFeed has participated deeply in SXSW for years, and our staffers are scheduled to speak on or moderate a half-dozen panels at SXSW 2016. We will feel compelled to withdraw them if the conference can't find a way to do what those other targets of haras**ent do every day — to carry on important conversati*** in the face of haras**ent. We hope you can support the principle of free speech and engage a vital issue facing us and other c***tituents on the event.

Fortunately, the conference is five months away. We are confident that you can put in place appropriate security precauti*** between now and then, and our security staff would be happy to advise on those measures.

We look forward to your reply.