this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023

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Update: Unity office death threat was made by a Unity employee (www.polygon.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

145 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/5340114

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Original Discussion^[https://lemmy.world/post/5057297]

San Francisco police told Polygon that officers responded to Unity’s San Francisco office “regarding a threats incident.” A “reporting party” told police that “an employee made a threat towards his employer using social media.” The employee that made the threat works in an office outside of California, according to the police statement.

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[–] TwilightVulpine 86 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Honestly at this point I feel worse for the guy who made the threat than anyone else. Can you imagine what is like working with those sort of bosses with such exploitative tendencies and an utter disregard for an entire industry? They get to ruin countless lives but if anyone gets mad that's the unacceptable one who is punished.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Then why don't they look for work at another company?

Making death threats is still a major dick move regardless of the circumstances.

[–] xantoxis 27 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It is, but all we have right now is Unity's claim that this is what happened. We don't even know the content of the threat, who made it, why they made it. All of that context could cast this in a wildly different light. I am very suspicious of Unity the company's motives here in saying this when we haven't heard from anyone else.

[–] snek 4 points 9 months ago

I think it was the police who found out it was an employee.

[+] [email protected] -6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

How can this be cast in any light that's not negative?

Companies don't just make up death threats.

[–] xantoxis 26 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They absolutely do when it benefits them and they think they can get away with it, I don't know how you could make such a blanket claim without questioning yourself just a little bit.

And of course it would be negative, but I think there's a chance the claim casts a negative light on the company, and not on the employee, who is as yet unnamed. As it stands now, any of the following could be true:

The entire story is fiction, made up by Unity to distract from literally everything else about them. Distractions are massively important to companies at times like this, and it's almost like clockwork that you find them making up distractions when they can't find a way to put a good spin on the press.
There's a real employee who posted something on social media, and it was a death threat. The death threat was about the current news. Bad employee, hope they see some consequences. I am doubting this right now because we don't have any actual evidence of it, and because of point (1). Furthermore, the vagueness of this press announcement and the fact that "you wouldn't know him, he works in another state" gives them cover . . .
There's a real employee who posted something negative on social media. It was not a death threat, and is being deliberately misconstrued by Unity to allow them to deploy point (1).
There's a real death threat posted on social media by someone who sucks. That person is not, in fact, a Unity employee and the announcement to the contrary was either deliberate misinformation or a simple mistaken identity. IDK what this would say about the company, but gamers can be real shitty. If this one is the case, I hope that person sees consequences, but they probably won't.
There's a real post on social media framed as a death threat, deliberately planted by someone at Unity to create a distraction, see point (1).

There's more, and quite frankly it gets tiresome to see people jumping to defend when ploys like this have been the playbook for shitty companies since the invention of the company. I don't know which of these things will be turn out to be true, but neither do you, and it's so boring to see someone claiming they know the facts here for sure.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

They literally do though to steer the conversation to one wherein they're a sympathetic figure. Never hear of PR?

[–] TwilightVulpine 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It might have been wiser, but seems to me we got to a point we should be thinking of the circumstances.

Besides, that only would have solved their individual problem, IF they even managed it. The way the company is being run would remain the same. How it would impact all the people who rely on that engine would remain the same.

It's "never acceptable" to threaten someone, but intentionally ruining countless people's livelihoods is "nothing personal". Something is off about that.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You can't just solve a company's culture by yourself.

You can either convince enough people to unionize, or you can save yourself.

[–] TwilightVulpine 4 points 9 months ago

Agreed but I can still understand the frustration.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee 16 points 9 months ago

Or he is just fucked up in the head. That is a possibility too.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

Unity employees have extraordinary working conditions and pay. It sucks that their hard work gets tarnished by stupid executives and poor PR but let's not paint the employee as a victim here.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'm pretty sure killing is a worse way to ruin someone's life.

[–] TwilightVulpine 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

The number of people being ruined is pretty different though.

I get it, it's a callous attitude, but I'm wondering if going for civility above anything else is really working out. I'd love for such situations to be settled with a reasonable discussion, but do they ever?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

Not sending death threats is the bar set for civility these days?

[–] Serinus 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

He didn't kill anyone.

[+] SocialMediaRefugee -7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Because a threat is not an attempt. Most likely they had absolutely no intention to carry through with it.

It's still bad but saying "I'm gonna kill you" is not the same as actually trying to kill you.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Because a threat is not an attempt...but saying “I’m gonna kill you” is not the same as actually trying to kill you.

Obviously, but you don't ignore it either. You don't wait for a DUI to crash before doing something about the threat. Say you'd like to shoot the president and see if the secret service ignores you.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You said that he didn't kill anyone because he got caught first. Which implies that if he didn't get caught he would have actually killed someone.

They really aren't the same. It's a common fallacy on the Internet to lunge straight to the worst possible case and equate that to whatever it is you're arguing, but it really isn't the same. Sure, the secret service won't ignore you if you say you'd like to shoot the president. But will their reaction be the same as if you've smuggled a gun in to a press conference and are spotted actively moving to get near him? Obviously not, because what I said remains true. Simply saying "I'm gonna kill you" is not the same as actually trying to kill you.

[–] Serinus 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Hold on, give him time to think of more strawmen.

[–] kamenlady 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Time is up!

Case closed.

[–] snek -2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

But they didn't just get mad (if this is the full story). They sent them a death threat. I think there is a fine line.