Previous meetups around the world planned for February 6, 2016 were officially called off by the organizer Daryush Valizadeh. Daryush who goes by the name "Roosh V" is an author, former industrial microbiologist, and runs the web sites Return of Kings, Roosh V, and Roosh V Forum. Roosh V sought to organise readers of his web sites around the world in what he called tribal meetings. The tribal meetings were heralded by him as an opportunity for men who describe themselves as 'neo-masculinity' to meet other like minded individuals.

Shortly after announcing plans to organize the worldwide meetup critics and the media began attacking the event and its organizer. They labeled Roosh V and the meetups as a pro-rape advocacy event.

The controversy around Roosh began nearly one year ago when he published a piece on his blog called "How to Stop Rape." The post speculated on ways to prevent rape that many critics felt actually called for the legalization of rape. The controversy continued to grow around the article because Roosh V never completely addressed until recently that the post was indeed satirical as his followers speculated.

The media in Australia were first to pick up the story about the world wide event. Media outlets there labeled the meetups as pro-rape rallies and some even said the group was planning to rape women during the meet up. But information on Roosh V's web site about the event do not even mention rape, legalizing rape, or advocating rape. His web site states the meetups would facilitate male bonding that is often more difficult to do because of technology and the Internet and that topics would be up to individual meetup leaders. Roosh also stated on his web site, "Tribal meetings will not tolerate the promotion of illegal actions and will not engage in violence. Any man that suggests violent activity will be seen as a provocateur or government agent."

Roosh V cancelled the meetings this afternoon citing safety and security concerns. On many sites including Twitter, Facebook, and online forums thousands of people planned to protest at the meet up locations. Besides protesting, numerous threats of violence including rape and murder were posted by people looking to stop the event.

In Las Vegas, members were planning to meet downtown near the famous Vegas Vic sign. Those plans have since been canceled although some members do plan to continue with the meetups. Those meetup locations will not be disclosed and would be far more limited than as originally planned.