Two panels at Austin's South By Southwest Interactive festival have been cancelled due to violent threats.

In its official statement, the festival said it had received "numerous threats of on-site violence related to this programming."

But an email from SXSW suggests the threats were directed primarily at a panel about harassment in games.

"Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games," was cancelled due to "numerous threats of violence regarding this panel," according to the email.

Its panelists, including Gamasutra's Katherine Cross, IBM Watson's Caroline Sinders, and the Online Abuse Prevention Initiative's Randi Harper, were to talk about "how to combat [harassment], how to design against it, and how to create online communities that are moving away from harassment."

Thanks to the threats received by SXSW, the festival said "a civil and respectful environment seems unlikely in March in Austin."

"For this reason, we have also canceled other sessions at the 2016 event that focused on the GamerGate controversy."

The other session in question was entitled "SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community," and was headed by Perry Jones of the Open Gaming Society, who had previously organised GamerGate events in Austin.

That panel was staffed by GamerGate supporters Mercedes Carrera and Nick Robalik and journalist Lynn Walsh, and was said to focus on "the current social/political landscape in the gaming community [and] the journalistic integrity of gaming’s journalists."

SXSW "hoped that hosting these two discussions in March 2016 in Austin would lead to a valuable exchange of ideas on this very important topic," which in the wake of the threats seems to have been naive.

The full text of the cancellation email follows.

This email serves as notice that SXSW Interactive has made the decision to cancel the “Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games” session for March 2016 in Austin.

On the one hand, we are an event that prides itself on being a big tent and a marketplace of diverse people and diverse ideas.

On the other hand, preserving the sanctity of that big tent at SXSW Interactive necessitates that we keep the dialogue civil and respectful — so that people can agree, disagree and embrace new ways of thinking in a safe and secure place. We have already received numerous threats of violence regarding this panel, so a civil and respectful environment seems unlikely in March in Austin. For this reason, we have also canceled other sessions at the 2016 event that focused on the GamerGate controversy.

We are strong believers in community at SXSW — and a healthy community sometimes requires strong management. Preserving the sanctity of the big tent is more important than preserving any particular session.