Kickstarter took seven years to respond to a complaint regarding a PUA campaign promoting rape as a tactic
It was just another boring day in quarantine; Checking E-mails, thinking of creative ways to stave off boredom and having a snack of rice crackers and V8. While browsing through my absurd number of daily newsletters, I spot a curious subject: “In response to your report about a Kickstarter project”.
I found that curious, since I have not used Kickstarter in some time. I opened up the E-mail to find that in 2013, I filed a complaint regarding the notorious Kickstarter titled “Above The Game: A Guide to Getting Awesome with Women”. The title seemed familiar. Then I saw my comments on the matter and remembered the incident with a gleaming flash.
The E-mail detailed that Kickstarter found no wrongdoing on behalf of the creator of the Kickstarter, Ken Hoinsky. For those who do not recall, in 2013, Ken Hoinsky and Kickstarter were publicly tarred and feathered for crowdfunding a book about picking up women with such quotes as:
“Physically pick her up and sit her on your lap. Don’t ask for permission. Be dominant. Force her to rebuff your advances,”
“Make her push your hand away as you get closer to her vagina,”
and
“Pull out your c — — and put her hand on it. Remember, she is letting you do this because you have established yourself as a LEADER. Don’t ask for permission, GRAB HER HAND, and put it right on your d — -.”
During the campaign (which amassed more than $20,000 at it’s peak), many women, including New York Daily News contributor Nina Golgowski, complained and petitioned Kickstarter to take action to which they declined.
“Some of this material is abhorrent and inconsistent with our values as people and as an organization,” the statement obtained by CNN read. “Based on our current guidelines, however, the material on Reddit did not warrant the irreversible action of canceling the project.”
They later rolled back their stance in a company blog titled “We Were Wrong”. The post detailed that due to having to make an immediate choice and their policy that inherently sides with creators, they initially chose not to remove the campaign from their platform. They proceeded to donate the total of $25,000 to “an anti-sexual violence organization called RAINN”. RAINN is responsible for running several emergency hotlines dedicated to assisting victims of assault, incest and rape.
Today, Ken Hoinsky’s book can be purchased on Amazon for $14.99 and notes in it’s description that it was “made famous by the Kickstarter campaign that caused over 60,000 people to petition to have it removed and never published.” and insists that it “should be mandatory reading for all men and women looking to better understand gender relations.”
In the wake of this, I cannot help but to feel as if Kickstarter only cares for problematic content when it’s dragging them out to dry.
Since this time, Kickstarter has allowed other lovers of misogyny, racism and violence against marginalized people to express their wildest fantasies on their platform. “Mein Waifu is the Fuhrer,” a 2019 Nazi-themed anime dating simulator, raised over $86,000 dollars and was classified as “parody” by Kickstarter and allowed to fund production.
In 2017, Kickstarter made many claims about supporting BLM and changing their TOS to not support hate speech. They have also recently opposed their employees unionizing. It seems that Kickstarter has many moral kinks to work out, though that has not stopped them from making 1.3 Million annually.
Knowing how much of a show they’ve tried to put on, it’s been especially difficult to receive the E-mail I did today.
Edit: I’ve recently received this E-mail from Kickstarter that states the following:
“Hello,
You received an email from us today about a project you reported to us in 2013, “Above the Game.” We’re so sorry for the confusion this caused. These emails were autogenerated in error.
We want to be clear: Content promoting or glorifying violence against anyone has always been prohibited on Kickstarter. Here is what we did to resolve this in 2013.
Thank you for reporting the project all those years ago. We take every report seriously and we sincerely apologize for today’s mistake.
Kickstarter”
If anyone requests it, I can provide a screenshot. I’m just angry at how Opera is making it look when capped for Medium.
This development does confuse me: Why did I get such an E-mail seven years later when the campaign isn’t even available via archive? Why would you tell such a blatant lie about whether or not content promoting violence is allowed on the platform? Did other people experience this “error”? I will continue with amendments as this develops.
