The tech conference Devternity has been canceled (not fake canceled, literally canceled) after allegations that the founder has been inventing fake women and catfishing on Instagram for years.

Bridget does a deep dive to get to the bottom of it, and what it says about default, dismissive attitudes about marginalized people in tech. There were real women the whole time! Why not invite one of them?!

A Tech Conference Listed Fake Speakers for Years: I Accidentally Noticed: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/devternity-fake-speakers/

Male Tech Conference Founder Is Behind Popular Woman Coding Influencer Account: https://www.404media.co/coding-unicorn-instagram-julia-kirsina-devternity/

Tech Conference Collapses After Organizer Admits to Making Fake ‘Auto-Generated’ Female Speaker

https://www.404media.co/devternity-fake-speakers-eduard-sizovs/

Eduards Sizovs’s full response thread: https://twitter.com/eduardsi/status/1728422017417032140

Here’s a collection of Julia through the years: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10Fds4DgzU_Yem577sfGykauuNkltIq3ykZdZUd1EAUE/edit?usp=sharing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Devternity! Did this tech conference create fake women to look more diverse?