--- title: TED Talks Grapple with Sexual Misconduct Reports description: Multiple attendees of TED events have reported sexual harassment or misconduct at the conferences, according to a Washington Post report. canonical: https://time.com/5029897/sexual-harassment-ted-events/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-17T19:43:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:17:55.588Z article:section: World og:title: Multiple People Say There's Been Sexual Misconduct at TED Events og:description: It appears to have been a problem for years og:url: https://time.com/5029897/sexual-harassment-ted-events/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd834b33dc3588edb/6988e65a22fb85d4a5e23bd9/ted-conference.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TEDxVeniceBeach - Wild Thoughts og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Multiple People Say There's Been Sexual Misconduct at TED Events twitter:description: It appears to have been a problem for years twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd834b33dc3588edb/6988e65a22fb85d4a5e23bd9/ted-conference.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Report: Multiple People Say There's Been Sexual Misconduct at TED Events  by [Jamie Ducharme](/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Nov 17, 2017 7:43 PM CUT  A general view of atmosphere during TEDx Venice Beach A general view of atmosphere during TEDx Venice BeachRandy Shropshire—Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Nov 17, 2017 7:43 PM CUT Multiple attendees and at least one employee have been victims of sexual misconduct at TED events, according to [a report published Friday in the Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-ted-talks-empire-has-been-grappling-with-sexual-harassment-interviews-and-internal-emails-show/2017/11/17/39f9374a-cae7-11e7-b0cf-7689a9f2d84e%5Fstory.html?hpid=hp%5Fno-name%5Fno-name%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar&tidr=a%5Fbreakingnews&utm%5Fterm=.78ab53f461e8 "undefined"). At least five incidents were reported after TED’s signature conference in Vancouver in April, according to the _Post_ story, though the problem appears to have been going on for years before that, according to emails reviewed by the _Post_ and a past attendee who went on record with the paper. TED conferences bring speakers from all backgrounds — from scientists to celebrities to business scions — together to deliver live speeches on a variety of topics. Nishat Ruiter, TED’s general counsel, wrote in an email to the group’s senior leadership that the company was “clearly not doing enough” to prevent sexual misconduct at its events. In the email, the _Post_ reports, she also mentioned that she had been “touched inappropriately but let it go.” In a statement, TED told the _Post_ that at least two men were “disinvited” from its events following the April complaints. “Creating a safe and welcoming environment is critical to the success of our conferences, and we have no tolerance for harassment of any kind. As soon as we heard there were issues at our conference in 2017 we took immediate action to address the specific allegations, then worked with leading experts to upgrade our code of conduct. Today we make the code of conduct extremely clear to all TED conference attendees, and encourage our community to report violations,” the statement reads. The company has faced sexual misconduct allegations in the past. One former staffer who spoke to the _Post_ said he was sexually harassed by the organization’s director of partnerships and eventually left the company in 2014\. (TED, in response, confirmed there was an “unhappy staff departure in 2014” but maintained it was “dealt with appropriately.”) The company also settled a sexual harassment case with a woman who did digital marketing for the company in 2014, according to the _Post._ TED did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5029897/sexual-harassment-ted-events/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5029897/sexual-harassment-ted-events/"},"headline":"Report: Multiple People Say There's Been Sexual Misconduct at TED Events","datePublished":"2017-11-17T19:43:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:17:55.588Z","description":"It appears to have been a problem for years","url":"https://time.com/5029897/sexual-harassment-ted-events/","keywords":["Ted","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd834b33dc3588edb/6988e65a22fb85d4a5e23bd9/ted-conference.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd834b33dc3588edb/6988e65a22fb85d4a5e23bd9/ted-conference.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TEDxVeniceBeach - Wild Thoughts","caption":"TEDxVeniceBeach - Wild Thoughts","creditText":"Randy Shropshire—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ted/","name":"Ted"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5029897/sexual-harassment-ted-events/","name":"Report: Multiple People Say There's Been Sexual Misconduct at TED Events"}}]}] ```