A Story Among Close Friends
"I never meant to out him publicly. I never meant to have any of this happen. It was a story that had come up. Instead of just reposting a hashtag, I thought if I described some more details of certain situations that it would become more real for friends in my life."
A History of Questionable Actions
In response, Malka attempted to defend himself by saying it was a "very specific scenario that went down" where everyone was "smashed, hard, at this million person party where normalcy is thrown out the window," and the woman initiated the act of physical contact. However, in this post and others, Malka goes beyond simply describing one specific incident by offering his beliefs on consent, and why it felt comfortable that he "grabbed her ass hard.""At one point in a bar a girl who didn't speak any English came up to me and started flirting heavily, then went straight into asking me to buy her a drink, as Itxaka translated when I didn't know what the hell was going on. I laughed, because drinks here were all of two Euros, but consented and then grabbed her ass hard to show that I wasn't being taken advantage of, and she thought better of treating me as a mark and left without taking her drink."
"She started the grabbing. We were joking and laughing about the whole thing and I saw her later that night and the joking and laughing continued.The outraged feminist posturing in this thread couldn't be further from the truth."
All the moderators I spoke to asked to be anonymous, citing a fear of harassment and doxxing, both of which have been rampant among NeoGAF's staff, prior to this incident.When the allegations surfaced, one moderator told me Malka quickly denied them. But as a chorus of legitimate questions surfaced, even the moderation staff wanted more answers. In a private Slack channel for moderators, Malka said a public statement was coming."Internet drama isn't new to NeoGAF," said one moderator, "but when the allegation is that the site owner sexually harassed someone, and it is allowed to spiral out of control to a point where it's a really bad look, it's hard to justify sticking around without a knowing that there's a clear plan ahead. Not knowing how this would move forward is what sealed the deal for me. It's impossible to moderate the forum in future in good faith when I'm unable to honestly answer valid questions people might have about this matter."The wait is what prompted this mod, and many others, to quit."Hours went by, no statement," said another moderator. "Other mods were starting to complain about how much crap they were receiving off-site. It was starting to seem really familiar. Scrolling further down, no statement.""Internet drama isn't new to NeoGAF, but when the allegation is that the site owner sexually harassed someone, and it is allowed to spiral out of control to a point where it's a really bad look."