Kotaku recently had to correct an article and issue an apology after going on the attack against the YouTube outlet EWNetwork and content creator Etika. It turns out that their attempt to form a witch hunt against Etika was misguided.
Kotaku in Action user B-Volleyball-Ready posted up a timeline of events and details on how Kotaku messed up. Essentially they reported on a fake trailer for the Nintendo Switch from the EWNetwork by Etika. The video is below.
The video was a troll and featured a fake Nintendo Switch that was 3D printed by the same guy who trolled people earlier this year with a fake 3D printed Nintendo NX controller, Frank Sandqvist. There’s even a video from Sandqvist linked in the description of the video above showing how the fake Nintnedo Switch was made.
Kotaku, however, published an article on November 17th, 2016 accusing Etika of having setup a funding campaign to receive money out of fear of “repercussions from Nintendo” for the video posted above. It turns out that someone else made a separate funding campaign for the fake Nintendo Switch video, not Etika.
Etika took to Twitter to lambast Kotaku on their dangerous journalism, which saw various commenters on their article attacking the YouTuber based on the misinformation.
I mean, not researching things before talking on em, I’m guilty of that in the past, but extreme negative allegations with no facts…? Wow
— Etika (@EtikaWNetwork) November 17, 2016
Here’s Kotaku’s article shitting on mehttps://t.co/lAPEgyfReL
Plus this GoFundMe I DIDN’T create obviouslyhttps://t.co/sx6ztt3OMq
— Etika (@EtikaWNetwork) November 17, 2016
So @Kotaku is informing people that I’m a living piece of shit.
It would have taken you niggas 2 minutes, TOPS to get the facts right. pic.twitter.com/ctjgTHDnCs
— Etika (@EtikaWNetwork) November 17, 2016
Writer Cecilia D’Anastasio posted a correction in the article, and then apologized to Etika on Twitter.
@EtikaWNetwork Hi, I wrote the piece. I sincerely regret the error. It was inexcusable & corrected 15 minutes post-pub. Sent e-mail apology.
— Cecilia D'Anastasio (@cecianasta) November 17, 2016
Part of the damage was already done and saw a number of Kotaku’s readers attacking Etika based on the parody video and the GoFundMe campaign (the latter of which he had nothing to do with).
This sort of ethical lapse is partly why #GamerGate came to fruition, and continues to find itself at the forefront of ethics in journalism to this very day… two years after its inception.
I was unable to reach out to Cecilia D’Anastasio because she has me blocked on Twitter.
