Intel elaborated today on its decision to pull advertising from the gaming industry blog Gamasutra, saying it didn’t mean to take sides in the online protest movement Gamergate. “When it comes to our support of equality and women, we want to be very clear,” the company said in an emailed statement. “Intel believes men and women should be treated the same.” The initial decision to pull the ads stemmed from an email campaign organized by Gamergaters, who for the past month and a half have stoked debate about the representation of women in games, recently targeting Gamasutra’s editor-at-large Leigh Alexander.
Here’s the full statement:
We take feedback from customers seriously. For the time being, Intel has decided not to continue with our current ad campaign on the gaming site Gamasutra. However, we recognize that our action inadvertently created a perception that we are somehow taking sides in an increasingly bitter debate in the gaming community. That was not our intent, and that is not the case. When it comes to our support of equality and women, we want to be very clear: Intel believes men and women should be treated the same. And, diversity is an integral part of our corporate strategy and vision with commitments to improve the diversity of our workforce. And while we respect the right of individuals to have their personal beliefs and values, Intel does not support any organization or movement that discriminates against women. We apologize and we are deeply sorry if we offended anyone.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
