[caption id="attachment_3496" align="aligncenter" width="620"]

TED 2012 Full Spectrum. February 27-March 2, 2012. Long Beach, CA. Photo: Ryan Lash/TED.[/caption] Sexual harassment has apparently become a pastime at the popular TED Talks Conferences, according to a recent report from The Washington Post. The report also revealed that Nishat Ruiter, TED's general counsel, seems to have been both privy to information about the harassment and herself a subject of inappropriate behavior. Many women have reported being groped or harassed by male attendees at TED gatherings “devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks,” according to the Post's story, which contained reporting based on interviews and internal emails obtained from TED.At least five women, the article noted, spoke up about harassment to TED officials after a conference in April in Vancouver. Allegations were reported by attendees as well as Ruiter. The Post reported that in an email, Ruiter told officials that she was “touched inappropriately but let it go." She added, "We are clearly not doing enough.”In her emails, Ruiter wrote that she “heard from so many women unprompted about the type of advances that were everywhere, and that felt ‘different’ from years past...This included a TED Prize winner and two TEDsters who spoke to me about this and more than one staff member.”Ruiter did not respond for comment directly, but a TED spokesperson pointed Corporate Counsel to a blog post it published Friday in response to the reports of sexual harassment published the same day. The organization did not comment about its top lawyer directly but confirmed with its response posted online that in April two males were the source of the complaints in which “four women attendees experienced sexual harassment, and another experienced aggressive behavior…” “We were alarmed by what we heard and immediately conducted full investigations to understand the context and impact of what had happened,” TED’s response read. While TED said it has always investigated claims in the past, the nonprofit said that April’s complaints “motivated us to do far more to strengthen our existing procedures,” including implementing “more robust and specific" policies and systems for anti-harassment this summer. These included making sure every attendee is aware of TED's code of conduct and that they would be removed from the event for violations. It also involved “publicizing the means by which attendees can report problems.”“We are determined to continue to increase the number of women who come to TED and to ensure that the conference experience is one where all attendees feel safe and respected,” the response read, adding, “We will use this story as motivation to ensure that inclusion remains at the core of our conference experience and workplace culture.”