Twitter, Which Employs 70% Men, Threw a ‘Frat Party’

It’s probably not a big deal for a Twitter team to get together and play some beer pong. Maybe in another climate, it wouldn’t even be a big deal to call said party a “frat partyR...
Twitter, Which Employs 70% Men, Threw a ‘Frat Party’
Written by Josh Wolford
  • It’s probably not a big deal for a Twitter team to get together and play some beer pong. Maybe in another climate, it wouldn’t even be a big deal to call said party a “frat party”.

    But when all of Silicon Valley, itself included, is facing criticism for a severe problem with gender diversity – it’s probably not the best of ideas.

    Yet, it happened.

    The party featured a “Twitter Frat House” sign and branded beer pong, as you can see.

    The image above was first posted by a Twitter employee, but was quickly removed. Of course, nothing is every really removed from the internet, and the image soon went viral.

    Twitter has apologized, with a spokesperson calling the theme “ill-chosen.”

    “This social event organized by one team was in poor taste at best, and not reflective of the culture we are building here at Twitter,” spokesman Jim Prosser said in a statement to Fusion. “We’ve had discussions internally with the organizing team, and they recognize that this theme was ill-chosen.”

    Twitter’s last diversity figures showed that the company was 70% male overall – 90% male in tech roles and 79% male in leadership roles. The company has promised to work on its diversity problems, saying it is “wholly committed to building a representative workforce, and is dedicated to ensuring fairness in all people decisions, including hiring, promoting, and paying.”

    Oh, and you might’ve forgotten, but Twitter is also embroiled in a gender discrimination lawsuit.

    Image via Anthony Quintano, Flickr Creative Commons

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