Vice Media was forced to cancel a virtual town hall event this week after angry staffers flooded the online event with thumbs-down emojis, RadarOnline.com can report.
The emoji incident occurred on Wednesday and came just days after Vice Media announced that it was closing its news website and, as a result, laying off hundreds of employees.
Several staffers who were axed from Vice Media apparently protested the recent layoff move by spamming the thumbs-down emoji during the virtual town hall.
Vice Media Group CEO Bruce Dixon reportedly canceled the event once it became “impossible to ignore the emojis.”
“Well, that didn't go as planned!” CNN reporter Oliver Darcy wrote in his Reliable Sources newsletter on Wednesday evening. “Vice Media invited staffers to a town hall on Wednesday morning after following through with plans to lay off hundreds of staffers.”
“But, as we first reported, the event was ultimately scrapped after some laid off employees invited to the virtual meeting inundated leadership with thumbs down emojis,” he continued.
“As chief operating officer Cory Haik spoke about the outlet's future plans, the emojis became too much to ignore, flooding the screen for all to see,” Darcy reported further.
“In fact, chief executive Bruce Dixon said it was ‘impossible to ignore the emojis’ and shut down the short-lived town hall,” the CNN reporter concluded.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Vice Media released a statement following the failed town hall event on Wednesday and called the situation “unfortunate.”
The spokesperson blamed the incident on “a few bad actors” and promised to “find another way to relay the necessary information to employees.”
"It is unfortunate that employees remaining with the organization who greatly want to contribute to its success were sabotaged by a few bad actors,” a rep for Vice Media said.
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“We understand that emotions are running high after such a significant change to the company and will continue to communicate,” the rep continued. “Our strategic vision moving forward is the right one for Vice."
As RadarOnline.com noted, the emoji-plagued town hall event on Wednesday morning came nearly one week after Vice Media announced that it was shuttering its news website and laying off hundreds of employees in an effort to reorganize the business.
Vice CEO Bruce Dixon announced the news on Thursday in a email memo to staffers.
“After careful consideration and discussion with the board, we have decided to make some fundamental changes to our strategic vision at Vice,” Dixon wrote. “It is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously.”
“As part of this shift, we will no longer publish content on vice.com,” Dixon added before announcing that Vice would be “eliminating several hundred positions.”
Vice Media Group filed for bankruptcy in May 2023.
