GamerGate

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Gamergate (harassment campaign) Article Talk From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Gamergate (disambiguation). Gamergate or GamerGate (GG)[¹] was a loosely organized misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. [2][³] It was conducted using the hashtag "#Gamergate" primarily in 2014 and 2015.[1][4][5][6] Beginning in August 2014, Gamergate targeted women in the video game industry, most notably feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian and video game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu, among others.[7][8][9][10][11] The harassment campaign included doxing, r--- threats, and death threats.[12][13][14] Gamergate proponents ("Gamergaters") stated that they were a social movement, but lacked well-defined goals, a coherent message, and leaders, making Gamergate difficult to define.[15][16][17] Gamergaters claimed to promote ethics in video games journalism, claimed to be protecting the "gamer" identity, and opposed what they asserted as "political correctness" in video games.[18][19][20][21][22] Read Date Target Gamergate, online harassment campaign in 2014-15 that targeted women in the video game industry. The attacks were attributed largely to white male right-wing gamers who railed against the rise and influence of women and feminism in the industry. Gamergate served as a recruiting tool for the growing alt-right movement and helped spur the online “Pizzagate" conspiracy theory, which soon spawned the wider QAnon conspiracy movement. …………………………....…..……….…..... Attack type Victims Motive View source Inquiry XA 28 languages ✓ Perpetrators Internet trolls, particularly from 4chan, Internet Relay Chat, and 8chan View history Tools ✓ Gamergate August 2014 - 2015 Women in the video game industry See all media Online harassment campaign Zoë Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, Brianna Wu, and others Gamergaters created conspiracy theories falsely accusing Quinn of an unethical relationship with video game journalist Nathan Grayson.[23][24][25] More broadly, they alleged unethical collusion between the press and feminists, progressives, and social critics.[17][26] [27] These claims were widely dismissed as trivial, conspiracy theories, baseless, or unrelated to actual issues of ethics in gaming and journalism.[28] [29][30] Gamergate supporters frequently denied that the harassment took place, falsely claiming it to be manufactured by the victims.[31][32] Misogyny anti-feminism anti- progressivism FBI investigation Gamergate has been described as a culture war over cultural diversification, artistic recognition, feminism in video games, social criticism in video games, and the social identity of gamers.[28][33] [34] [35] Many supporters of Gamergate opposed the increasing influence of feminism and so-called "social justice warriors" on video game culture. [2][36] Gamergate led figures both inside and outside the gaming industry to focus on methods of addressing online harassment, ways to minimize harm, and prevent similar events. [37] [38] [39] [40] Gamergate has been viewed as a contributor to the alt-right and other right- wing movements.[21][41] Video game developer Brianna Wu

Jalen Hutchinson Studied Culinary Science at Culinary Institute of America (Graduated 2014). Author has 304 answers and 740.1K answer views. 5y Not that I care that much either way, but it did expose a lot of corrupt game developers and game journalists. X Journalists would make claims of people like Anita Sarkeesian "playing video games all her life" when she openly admitted many times she is not a gamer and only starter recently (when it wasn't for an interview). Various developers trading sex or money for good reviews got exposed, journalists who accepted got exposed. People became a bit more critical about supporting a game just because the developer has a victim complex stating tat their game could have only failed because of sexism, instead of their own poor developing skills. What really sealed the deal was opposition often faking their own harassment. Anita sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn have been caught multiple times screenshotting "harassment" while showing that the harrasser's account name in the login. Or when someone called the police to help Sarkeesian against a "very real threat" she was posting about, only for police to find the harasser's messages were coming from her IP address. I just want honesty from the community, and the lies were mostly exposed by the "dreaded" gamergate. 1.3K views • View upvotes 26

The people who censored Gamergate on Wikipedia were working for Russia and Saudi Arabia by hyatt » Thu Jul 06, 2023 7:46 pm As they say, follow the money. There are Russian oligarchs with a lot of money: Meet the Russian Billionaires that Took on BP and Won. Herman Gref: CEO of Sberbank, Russian trade minister, and board member of the World Economic Forum American Billionaires Vanish From Russian Fund's Website (right when Gamergate happened) International Advisory Board: Leonard Blavatnik School of Government Edelman names Stan Polovets (of Alfa Group) as New Regional Chairman In Russia This last one leads to... The Edelman Dig Edelman senior account supervisor for social strategy Adam Rosenberg was part of the New Organizing Institute, a large number of Democratic Party campaign staff working for the AFL-CIO. Edelman was at this time taking orders from Russia (see Polovets above) and from Omar Qirem of Edelman Saudi Arabia. So when PR orders came in to Edelman from Russia and Saudi Arabia, Rosenberg could distribute these orders to the other campaign staffers that he had been working with for a decade. These included: 50 * Ari Rabin-Havt of the Democratic National Committee * Taryn Rosenkranz of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee * The Arab American Institute which is the vehicle that brought Rashida Tlalb into Congress * Amanda Michel of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and also The Guardian's Senior Editor for Strategy and Partnerships. As was observed, everything links back to The Guardian. * Blue State Digital which is sponsored by Anil Dash who is known for racketeering * Win Without War which signed a Letter of Solidarity Standing With NIAC which is a known front for the Iranian govenrment * Zach Exley of the Ruckus Society which advocates for violent "direct action" campaigns, and who was the Chief Community Officer for Wikipedia starting in 2010. * Eli Pariser, a co-founder of the Avaaz movement that is run by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office as a front for Hamas. He is also a member of the Tech Advisory Board of the Anti-Defamation League with Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman, Facebook VP Guy Rosen, Crowdstrike president and former FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry, and Craig Newmark of Craigslist who is a member of the US-Palestinian Partnership. Some of the Wikipedia staff were working for George Soros's Open Society Institute. The significance of this is who Soros was working for. * Soros was partnered with Igor Ivanov of the Russian Federation, the Russian-controlled African National Congress party (ANC), Wadah Khanfar the head of Qatari state media Al-Jazeera, and multiple other foreign powers. * The chairman emeritus of the Soros organization was partnered with Qatar. * Soros's senior advisors include Prince Turki the former head of Saudi Intelligence hyatt Sucks Posts: 35 Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2018 12:04 am Been thanked: 20 times

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NEWS Report: Man Behind Pelosi Hammer Attack Was Radicalized By Gamergate Alleged posts from David Depape's now-deleted blog suggest that he was connected to the far-right movement By Sisi Jiang Published 2 hours ago | Comments (17) | Alerts

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Overview

GamerGate refers to the online backlash against perceived breaches of journalistic integrity on video game news sites that occurred as a result of the Quinnspiracy, an online controversy surrounding indie game developer Zoe Quinn's alleged affairs with a number of men working in the video game industry, including Kotaku staff writer Nathan Grayson. The term has also since been used to describe the group of internet users, based mainly on Twitter, who claim that there is a lack of transparency within the video game journalism industry. These same people have also been criticized of practicing misogyny and sexism by many, through harassment and trolling, referring to their opposition as social justice warriors.

Background

The Zoe Post

On August 16th, 2014, game developer Zoe Quinn's ex-boyfriend Eron Gjoni published an online expose detailing their relationship called the Zoe Post. In the expose Gjoni claims Quinn cheated on him with several men in the gaming industry, including Kotaku journalist Nathan Grayson. These claims were subsequently refuted by Kotaku editor-in-chief Steve Totilo in a post on the website.^[76] In this post he claims that the only time Nathan mentioned Quinn was in a post about a gaming competition known as GameJam.^[77] The day following the publication of the Zoe Post, YouTuber MundaneMatt uploaded a video critiquing Quinn's game Depression Quest and commenting on the alleged affairs with men working in the video game industry.^[3] The video was subsequently removed due to a copyright claim allegedly by Quinn for using a still image from the game.^[2] On August 18th, YouTuber Internet Aristocrat uploaded the first in a series of videos titled Quinnspiracy Theory, in which he discusses the issue of cronyism in gaming media and the indie game development community.

Ethics in Gaming Journalism

As concerns over the alleged integrity of gaming journalists increased, it was discovered that several were actively contributing money to Quinn's Patreon account,^[5]^[6] including Polygon editor Ben Kuchera who had been donating to Quinn for several weeks prior to writing an article about her game. Kotaku writer Patricia Hernandez subsequently came under scrutiny as well when gamers began investigating her alleged romantic relationships with other video game developers.^[7] Similarly, many criticized sound designer Robin Arnott for having an alleged affair with Quinn while appearing as a judge in the Indiecade game competition, which gave Quinn an award for Depression Quest.^[8]

On August 26th, Kotaku^[4] editor Stephen Totilo posted a statement regarding the gaming news site's code of ethics, announcing that Kotaku journalists would not be allowed to contribute to the Patreon accounts of game developers. The same day, Polygon^[11] followed up with a similar statement announcing that all writers must disclose any contributions they have made to developer's Patreon accounts. Readers later released a statement condemning Polygon's new ethics policy for being unsatisfactory^[9] Some criticized the new policies for being unfair, while others suggested the policy change was the result of sexism and misogyny.

Bill Zoeker @BillZoeker * Follow Kotaku. Are you kidding me right now? Like, really, is this a prank? わReply t3 Retweet * Favorite More 2:57 AM-27 Aug 2014 Reply to @BillZoeker Terence Wiggins @TheBlackNerd-9m @BillZoeker what happened now? Ben @flintmech 8m @BilZoeker oh lord I'm afraid to ask Bill Zoeker @BillZoeker 7m @TheBlackNerd They're instating a policy disallowing contributors from donating to devs' patreons Terence Wiggins@TheBlackNerd-2m @BillZoeker I ask again, why do I even want to be involved with games journalisnm Coleman @colejstocks 1m @TheBlackNerd @BillZoeker Yeah how dare they, this isn't an issue about journalist integrity or conflict of interest!

Samantha Allern Really disappointed in Polygon and Kotaku today. These people did not care about journos being friendly w/ devs until those devs were @CousinDangereux 1h t3108 ★92 Rob Simple @Rob_Simple-3m @CousinDangereux Yeah, that's why so many of us are supporting a fundraiser to get more women into developing games. We hate them Samantha Allen @CousinDangereux- 3m @Rob_Simple Nobody cares about your f------ blood money :04 PM- 27 Aug 2014-Details 23 Hide conversation Reply to @CousinDangereux Rob Simple @Rob_Simple-now @CousinDangereux What a well-worded and totally reasonable response. Thank you for your contribution to the greater debate. 2

/r/KotakuinAction

On August 24th, 2014, the /r/KotakuInAction subreddit was launched by Redditor^[103] david-me. Modeled after the name of another social justice reactionary subreddit called /r/TumblrinAction, /r/KotakuinAction quickly established itself as one of the earliest ad-hoc communities to emerge in the wake of the scandal, amassing nearly 100,000 subscribers within its three years of existence. As the public interest in GamerGate began to decline in the latter half of the decade, /r/KotakuinAction became a broader social hub and a forum for those who share skeptical or critical views on the rise of social justice and the culture of political correctness.

Sexism in Gaming Culture

After the Zoe Post, many commentators online, including social justice bloggers, began to condemn the gaming industry, and the culture surrounding it, for being filled with sexism and misogyny. Many news sites began to report on these allegations, many of which saw this alleged harassment as proof of the sexism rooted within gaming culture.^[78]^[79]^[80] Among those who were targeted by this harassment included video game developer Brianna Wu,^[81] and actress/livestreamer Felicia Day.^[82]

On October 29th, 2014, video game critic Anita Sarkessian appeared on Stephen Colbert's late-night news show The Colbert Report to discuss sexism in the gaming industry.^[83] The clip of Sarkessian and Colbert's discussion was later uploaded to Comedy Central's YouTube channel (shown below), and was reported on by various sites such as The Verge^[84] and The Washington Post.^[85]

Notable Developments

#GamerGate

On August 27th, actor Adam Baldwin posted a tweet linking to Internet Aristocrat videos along with the hashtag #GamerGate."^[1] In the first week, the hashtag was tweeted over 244,000 times^[13] according to the Twitter analytics site Topsy (shown below left). By November, the hashtag had been tweeted just over 1.8 million times in the prior month, with an average of 50,000 tweets per day (shown below right).

lwects per day: ligarmergat October 7th- November 6th 150K 125K 100K 75K 50K 25K 10/10 10/16 10/22 10/28 11/3 #gamergate 1,885,495 ANALITICS EYTOPSY

Anti-"Gamer" Backlash & "The End of Gamers"

On August 28th, several news sites published articles calling for an end to the "gamer" cultural identity, including The Financial Post, Ars Technica, The Daily Beast, The Stranger, Beta Beat, Gamasutra, Polygon and Kotaku (shown below).

Gamers' don't have to be your audience. We Might Be Witnessing The 'Death of An Gaming Is Leaving "Gamers" Behind A Disheartening Account of 'Gamers' are over. _amm The Harrassment Going On In Why the vitriol of the gaming internet is ldentity' Gaming Right Now (And how Joseph Bernstein BuzzFeed Staf Adam Baldwin Is Involved) ed to: SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS 58 minutes ago uest August 28, 20141 By Leigh Alexander I often say I'm a video game culture writer, but lately I dont know exactly what that means. Game e know it is kind of embarrassing not even culture. It's buying things, spackling over memes and in-jokes repeatedly, and it's getting Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Programming, Art, A Guide to Ending "Gamers :57:00 pnm I've been working at Kotaku for nearly eight years now, and while I've seen some online kerfuffles over various issues in that time, I've never seen anything like the past two weeks. The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra's community The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and net Gamasutra s been t e in every conceiveable There has been so much hate. So many angry words, so many aceusations, over...what? Video games? Women in video games? People who write about video games? sense of the word, in some part due t in the concluding chapter of lan Bogost's esca the hundreds of tweets being written about it, we're seeing calls to do away with the concept of The death of the "gamers" and the women t its peak and things me who "killed"hensa certo hea What the hell is going on with gamers right now Anita Sarkeesian Threatened ith R--- and Murder for Daring to Keep Critiquing Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian prove points a certain gamer-type refuses to hear he past several weeks have seen an extraordinary amount of vitriol between some game fans, game makers, and game writers. That anger has started to spill out of traditional gamer-internet silos and onto social networks, and people without ames posted by ANNA MINARD on THU, AUG 28 direct stake in gaming have taken notice. It's prompted some hard questions for game culture, and a lot of soul-searching. Anita Sarkeesian, the woman behind a fantastic web series critiquing misogyny video games, released another video this week. Funded as a Kickstarter project Sarkeesian's Tropes vs. Women in Video Games" series scholarly look at video games through a feminist lens, in which Sarkeesian breaks down a bunch of common female stereotypes in games and explains how to spot them and why they're harmful, with tons of examples (including examples of games really check it It's Dangerous to Go Alone: Why Are Gamers So Angry? A screenshot of a domestic abuse scene from Watch Dogs used a Oh, Anita, you're so beautiful and sexy. you know that? was the nicest terrible thing a random Twitter user said to Anita Sarkeesian, creat peppered her with threats of r---, death, and the address of her home and that of her parents following the posting of her latest video on Monday. The video, which would be right at home on PBS in tone if not content, suggested that many mainstream games represent women as accessories and shorthand rather than as humans, a viewpoint that generated swift and unrelenting rage the Tropes vs Women in Video Games series, as he The subset of entitled, belligerent gamers convinced that bein ny intendo reveals the New necessary are overwhelmin Feminist Video Blogger Is Driven From Home by Death Threats Just because adult women are the largest demographic in The attack on Sarkeesian was among a number of incidents in the last few weeks that exposed some the ugly (yet familiar) attitudes and prejudices that remain deeply ingrained in the gaming culture This time, those sentiments have gotten tied up in ethical arguments in an attempt to highlight Opinion by Chris Plante on Aug 28, 2014 at 1:21p @plante Click for more on how Polygon writes opinion pieces Dan Golding Sexism, misogyny and online attacks: It's a horrible time to consider yourself Last week a game desiger's persoal life was exposed tothe internet and used to Dan Golding, writer and academic. Here's BY JACK SMITH IV 828 10:50AM What an awful week for the culture that surrounds and influences video games. yourself ua academic stuff. This tumblr is for things that t go anywhere else. justify physical threats to both the developer and her colleagues. The designer was one gamer f many people targeted in an orchestrated harassment effort directed at game PATRICK O'ROURKE 1 August 28, 2014 | Last Updated Aug 28 9:33 PM ET More from Patrick O'Rourke l @Patrick ORourke Misogynistic Trolls Drive Feminist Video Game Critic From Her Home The End of Gamers The last few weeks in videogame culture have seen a level of combativeness more marked and bitter than any befo First, a developer-a woman who makes games who has had so much piled on to etuate things by namingh harassment campaign that attacked her personal life and friendships. Campaigns of They are dismayingly common among those who happen to be women, or not white straight men, and doubly so if they also happen to make the sort of game at game devel Anita Sarkeesian has made enemies of misogynists in the gaming community. Time and time again, they've gone much, much too far. (Screengrab via Feminist Frequency) anv through their very existence. The viciousness and ferocity with which this campaign occurred, however, was shocking, and certainly out of the ordinary s hard to take seriously the online cesspools where men's rights activists and not-all-mer apologists congregate. But as ridiculous as they seem, a lot of these guys are dead serious, and capable of causing very real havoc rou routine, shockingly). It was an ugly spectacle that should haunt and shame those involved for the rest of their lives. Anits Sarkeesians Feminist Frequency examines common tropes in video games Here's your daily reminder that Internet misogynists are vile, horrible creatures and that women face threats and harassment on a daily basis just for having opinions and voicing them: feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian has been driven out of her own home after receiving an COMMEN minist Frequency and Anita Sarkeesian's latest video, Women as Background Decoration (part 2), is thought-provoking, eye-opening and most importantly accurate. outpouring of death and r--- threats on Twitter n her latest video Sarkeesian examines how non-playable female characters in video games are often only used as objects of sex and violence. She discusses notable titles like itman Absolution, Bioshock: Infinite, Watch Dogs and massive franchises like the Grand Theft Auto and the God of War series. TECH HEALTH 08.28.1 Fanboys, White Knights, and the Hairball of Online Misogyny ees and r--- threats. The men who defended her were accused A harmless woman is being harassed online by a nerdy subculture. The fact 08/28/2014

On September 1st, journalists and independent developers involved in this 'anti-gamer' movement published a signed open letter to the gaming community, asking gamers to end the harassment towards critics and developers.^[15] The following day, software engineer Benjamin Quintero published an article on Gamasutra questioning the strategy of gaming sites deliberately alienating their core readers by denouncing their culture.^[16] Shortly after, Quintero tweeted that he had been downgraded by the video gaming news blog. On August 30th, the GamerGate Harassment Tumblr^[10] blog was launched, which chronicled harassment of gamers by those associated with the online social justice community.

On September 3rd, YouTuber Boogie2988 uploaded a video responding to accusations of bigotry toward those who support GamerGate (shown below). In the first 24 hours, the video gained over 111,000 views and 7,000 comments.

"Bloggers" vs "Journalists"

Once the calls for journalistic integrity began to grow louder, various writers for mainstream gaming media outlets started publicly rejecting the title of "journalist" and began referring to themselves as "bloggers". During the PAX Prime 2014 Q&A panel on August 29th, several panelists made a point to repeatedly declare themselves as "not journalists." Contrary to the trend however, Kotaku stated that it hired "journalists" and not "bloggers".

TheQuinnspiracy</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/StevenBeynon">StevenBeynon Kotaku is staffed by journalists. Not "bloggers."
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) 27 augustus 2014

#GameOverGate

On September 5th, Zoe Quinn posted a series of compiled screenshots from an IRC chat claiming it as evidence that GamerGate was a conspiracy started by 4chan to get people to harass women and gaming journalists. Immediately afterward, the hashtag #Gameovergate^[17] was created by Quinn's followers to mock the gamergate movement.^[14]

DADescargas The infamous IRC Channel.log - Notepad++ Archivo Editar Buscar Ver Formato Lenguaje Configurar Macro Ejecutar TextFX Plugins Ventanas? The infamous IRC Channel .log 5508 Aug 21 19.49.19 <Deusvult> I just chill on steam row 5509 Aug 21 19.49.20 * yukko (~yuuko@Rizon-E9B351D1.h3d1.or.comcast.net) has left #burgersandfrie3 5510 Aug 21 19.49.20 * yukko (~yuuko@Rizon-E9B351D1.hsdl.or.comcast.net) has joined #burgersandfries 5511 Aug 21 19.49.24 <Deusvult> sucking gabes d--- 5512 Aug 21 19.49.28 <Deusvule> and 3ailing piratebay 5513 Aug 21 19.49.34 * Opfag (-oP@193479F5.18EECC37.7624C7B9.1P) has joined #burgersandfries 5514 Aug 21 19.49.37 <Opfag> Mother of f--- 5515 Aug 21 19.49.49 <JCtheDenthog > Eyyy lmao 5516 Aug 21 19.49.49 * GeorgeWashington has kicked JCtheDenthog from #burgersandfries (Watch your language!) 5517 Aug 21 19.49.52 <Opfag> Apparently he can't ban my token name 5518 Aug 21 19.49.59 <rd0951> 5519 Aug 21 19.49.59 * JCtheDenthog (~AndChat21@3822F3D9 .40F914EE.DE 6D5023.IP) has joined #burgersandfries 5520 Aug 21 19.50.07 <DeusVult> I'm actually wondering if i should get the latest bundle just for KolF 5521 Aug 21 19.50.09 <JCtheDenthog > Yay malo 5522 Aug 21 19.50.11 <Opfag I think I found one of the wives 5523 Aug 21 19.50.18 <Silverl2> yeah? 5524 Aug 21 19.50.20 <DeusVult> thought we had one already 5525 Aug 21 19.50.24 <Opfag I have to fact check 5526 Aug 21 19.50.26 <Opfag> no no, the other one 5527 Aug 21 19.50.26 <DeusVult> that french twitter and steam account 5528 Aug 21 19.50.43 <Cyberserker>.kb opfag OH BABY A TRIPLE 5529 Aug 21 19.50.44* GeorgeWashington sets ban on *!*193479F5.18EECC37.7624C7B9. IP 5530 Aug 21 19.50.44 * GeorgeWashington has kicked Opfag from #burgersandfries (OH BABY A TRIPLE) 5531 Aug 21 19.50.49 <sarahv> 5532 Aug 21 19.50.55 <ebola-chan Lol 5533 Aug 21 19.51.06 <silverI2> top lels 5534 Aug 21 19.51.19 <rdo951>i wish jontron would have done the livestream 5535 Aug 21 19.51.21 <sarahv> 5536 Aug 21 19.51.25 <sarahv> 5537 Aug 21 19.51.28 <rd0951> 5538 Aug 21 19.51.31 <silver2> it would have been great if he did 5539 Aug 21 19.51.33 <rd0951> 5540 Aug 21 19.51.36 <sarahv> 5541 Aug 21 19.51.38 <sarahv>:( 5542 Aug 21 19.51.38 <DeusVult think he just stopped giving a s--- about it all 5543 Aug 21 19.51.40 <rd0951> 5544 Aug 21 19.52.00 <sarahv>clearly the jewish media conspiracy got to him 5545 Aug 21 19.52.07 <sarahv> 5546 Aug 21 19.52.09 <jezz> Link to the proof of him backing down? 5547 Aug 21 19.52.10 <rd0951> 5548 Aug 21 19.52.18 <NumberHe said he would just put more work into making videos and s--- instead of wasting time on twitter. 5549 Aug 21 19.52.22 <Silverl2> he definitely was he woouldnt censor himself the only reason he hasnt told everyone about egoraptor is because everyone 5550 Aug 21 19.52.22 <rd0951 http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n 1s56d6g 5551 Aug 21 19.52.34 <rd0951> 5552 Aug 21 19.52.54 <silver! 2> ǐ dunno but he has 3hit on ego and hes made it clear he wanted to talk about it 5553 Aug 21 19.53.26 <jeZZ> The going theory is that Ego is desperate to always be in control, feel validated, receive attention, etc. yay lamo LOL THOUGH RIP boozeblob What livestream? do you think he was pressured into backing off he said he was gonna do a livestream Oh last night he said this and warned him to quiet down and be a good goy well maybe he got a lot of flak for it by his peers told everyone what about ego? Normal text file nb char: 14471643 Ln: 5508 Col:52 Sel:0 Dos Windows UTF-8 INS

On the following day, The Escapist Magazine's Co-founder Alexander "Archon" Macris, visited the IRC channel to cover their side of the story in an article.^[18] In the article, the members of the channel shared how all the screenshots Quinn showed were taken out of context to mislead viewers or written by trolls attempting to disrupt the channel who were subsequently banned. Additional chatlogs^[19] were provided for the missing context.

Exclusive: 4Chan and Quinn Respond to Gamergate Chat Logs GREG TITO | 7 SEPTEMBER 2014 6:57 AM 414 The Escapist spoke to 4Chan and the independent game developer called Zoe Quinn after she posted several screenshots from an IRC chat channel of her opponents discussing "blackhat" operations 022 841 76 43R 021 The controversy currently occurring in gaming culture began on August 16th when a man named relationship with the developer of Depression Quest, known as Zoe Quinn. Some people reacted to some details in the post- her alleged affairs with a game journalist and others in the industry with anger and resentment against what they perceived as a bias or agenda against gaming culture. This sparked more debate and more articles in the gaming press over the next few weeks, increasingly centered around the Lord Zoldemort @TheQuinnspiracy Followw also #notyourshield was purely to deflect when people started calling out #gamergate as misogynistic 11:27 AM - 6 Sep 2014 While that was 237 RETWEETS 175 FAVORITES occurring, Quinn claims to have quietly infiltrated a sub-group of the forum board 4Chan in order to expose the motives behind their actions. On the morning of September 6th, starting at 3:30 am ET Quinn began posting on her Twitter account selected screenshots of chat logs from this channel called #burgersandfries-claiming that those involved had "ulterior motives". The Escapist reached out to members of 4Chan to get their response to these accusations and to Zoe Quinn to clarify some of the statements she made on Twitter

"GameJournoPros" Mailing List

After several articles critical of the "gamer" identity were being posted on gaming news websites, people began speculating that journalists had worked together to promote a narrative against gamers that disagreed with them. On September 17th, Brietbart staff writer Milo Yiannopoulos posted a tweet hinting he had obtained information about a "co-ordinated approach" used by journalists who wrote the articles (shown below).

Following Milo Yiannopoulos @Nero Was there a co-ordinated approach to the "death of gamers" articles? There are suspicions. But the facts will come out now. #GamerGate Reply t Retweet ★ Favorite More RETWEETS FAVORITES 116 160 5:38 PM-17 Sep 2014

Later that day, Breitbart ^[20] published and article titled "Exposed: The Secret Mailing List of the Gaming Journalism Elite," revealing a private Google group mailing list titled "GameJournoPros," purportedly used by gaming journalists cooperating to work against GamerGate. The article contained several screenshots taken from the mailing list, which discussed ways to approach the topic of Zoe Quinn and the GamerGate controversy (shown below).

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 9:43 AM, Kyle Orland <kyle orlando If you are behind on the appalling doxxing attempt against her overnignt, read this first:http /ipastebin com/v4DGSQaR wrote The very first paragraph of that statement: This has nothing to do with games and is not a matter of legitimate public interest, but is simply a personal matter. I would hope and request that the games press be respectful of what IS a personal matter, and not news. This is explicitly about my private life, which has been regrettably forced into the public and framed by people who pose a threat to my safety and well being as well as that of the people I love. I would hope that the effort people have gone through to dress it up as anything more would not be enough to have those who see it for what it is take the bait. I understand where Quinn is coming from, and want to respect her desire for privacy. At the same time, I do feel that there is some legitimate public interest in a game developer being attacked by "the internet. At the same time as*that",I don't want to in essence reward the jerks doing this by giving their "issue" any attention at all (Im not even going to give the b------- journalism ethics" excuse for these attacks the time of day. Even if there is any merit to those accusations, the sickening facts of these attacks easily overwhelms it) But then there's this, from Quinn's statement I have forfeited (my privacy] by being a "public figure" in a small community, while those who delight in assailing me hide behind their keyboards and a culture that permits it, beyond reproach." That "beyond reproach" part is bugging me, because I would LOVE to use my platform to reproach this kind of behavior... but that would go against Quinn's valid and understandable desire not to have this personal matter publicized by the media So what's to be done? Maybe we should just stick to Twitter to boost the signal on this one, rather than our "front pages." (Quinn seemed initially OK with people retweeting her statement she took down the original Tumbir post, so who knows). Maybe we should get a public letter of support going around decrying these kinds of personal attacks, signed by as many sympathetic journalists/developers as we can. Maybe we should just use this as an excuse to give more attention to her work... I know I've been meaning to review Depression Quest since its Steam release. tter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/501644035593748481) but then

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 10:57 AM, Ben Kuchera <ben@ This is the thread: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.858226-Zoe-Quinn-or-how-video-game- media-may-have-been-exposed-as-a-pro-feminist-hugbox wrote Someone signed up for an Escapist account just to post that thread, and try to spread alleged details of someone's sexual past in order to shame them. I'm not sure what your definition of harassment is, but that fits mine. On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 9:16 AM, Ben Kuchera <ben@wrote: This is the question: People are using your platform to harass a developer. Are you comfortable with that? You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Game Jounalism Professionals" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to GameJournoPros+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com To post to this group, send email to GameJournoPros@googlegroups.com Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/GameJournoPros. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 10:12 AM, Jason Schreier ischreier@wrote: "Kotaku employee who reviewed her game, Nathan Grayson" This is not true. "EDIT: Oh, and then there's the fact that the blog post by Nathan Grayson has apparently been taken down. They're seriously trying to hide it, from my point of view.' This is also not true. Nathan has never reviewed or written about Depression Quest for Kotaku

Julian Assange's Reddit AMA

On September 15th, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange participated in an "ask me anything" thread on the /r/IAmA^[22] subreddit to answer about his new book When Google Met WikiLeaks. After Redditor ShaskaOtselot asked for his opinion censorship of GamerGate discussions on Reddit, Assange replied that it was "pathetic." After another Redditor pointed out that ShaskaOtselot had been shadowbanned, Assange edited the post to point out that a user had been banned for asking him a question about censorship. On the same day, Julian Assange tweeted about this event using the hashtag #gamergate.^[23]^[24]

[-] ShaskaOtselt How do you feel about the censorship on Reddit in wake of GamerGate? permalink source save save-RES report give gold reply hide child comments ^ [H] 55 points an hour ago ︿ [-] DOH ewe nee [+1] Julian Assange! [S] 101 points an hour ago @ It's pathetic. But censorship by companies controlling privatized political space is now almost a norm. Facebook is implementing its own "laws" for social behavior and politics. Even Twitter has now folded; censoring for example, leaks about the New Zealand prime minister just this weak and some time ago banning Anonymous Sweden after a request from that country. High volume publication-control of publication by powerful organisations = censorship, all the time. We have to fight to create new networks of freedom. The old and powerful always become corrupt. permalink source save save-RES parent report give gold reply - doodep 17 points 11 minutes ago I thought I should let you know that the person you just replied to in regards to GamerGate has been shadowbanned. Clicking on /u/ShaskaOtselot I+1wl bring you to a page not found. He will not know he's been banned This is the current state of Reddit's community and free speech. permalink source save save-RES parent report give gold reply load more comments (2 replies) [-] Thisonepun [+1] 19 points 22 minutes ago And now he's Shadowbanned permalink source save save-RES parent report give gold reply [-] 9-style 1 point 2 minutes ago H-------- REDDIT HAS F------ BALLS, SHADOWBANNING IN FRONT OF JULIAN ASSANGE. HAHAH F------ JESUS permalink source save save-RES parent edit delete reply

WikiLeaks @wikileaks Follow WikiLeaks @wikileaks Follow 11吟 #Reddit "shadowbans" user for asking #Assange a question about censorship on Reddit. reddit.com/r/technology/e.. #GamerGate 16 PM-15 Sep 2014 #GamerGateers should know that the pattern of censorship & cronyism they see is mirrored at the very I am Julian Assange. AMA about my new book. "When... Jr/technology am Julan Assange. Im here to talk about my new book on Google that comes out this week, "When Geogle Met Wikileaks 舜reddit Oreddit etop. evel up:twiter.com/wikileaks/stat. 1203 AM-16 Sep 2014 629 RETWEETS 461 FAVORITES わ ★ 941 RETWEETS 662 AVOITES

It was later revealed that the user was shadowbanned months prior for violating site-wide rules and that the mods thought his comment was mistakenly marked as spam and approved it.^[55]

Censorship on 4chan

Starting in mid-September, many posts discussing GamerGate were deleted on various board on 4chan, leading many users to question the integrity of the site's moderation team. On September 17th, YouTuber Dr. Layman posted a video revealing an IP range ban on 4chan blocking users in Germany from posting to the /pol/ (politics) and /v/ (video games) boards.

[This video has been removed]

On the following day, members of the /sp/ (sports) and /v/ boards spammed images of the janitor from the animated television series Arthur^[21] with the phrase "He does it for free" aimed at 4chan's moderation team. On September 19th, 4chan founder Christopher Poole posted an announcement explaining why all GamerGate threads were being removed from the site, claiming that many were violating the site’s global “no personal information / raids / calls to invasion” rule (shown below).

[Return [Catalog] [Bottom] Gn Regarding recent events moot ## Admin 4 minutes ago No.264185884 メ曲 The decision to remove "GamerGate" threads has been poorly communicated, and that's my fault. Said threads are being deleted primarily because they violate our blanket "no ersonal information /raids calls to invasion" rule. Spamming the reports system and creating multiple topics were also a factor, especially given /v is one of 4chan's fastest moving boards and has historically struggled with keeping topics limited to actual video games. Regarding a perceived lack of free speech/censorship - many seem to misinterpret my advocating for anonymous communication and highlighting that it allows people to share things they otherwise wouldn't be comfortable with on other platforms as "you can say and do anything on 4chan," which simply isn't the case. We've had rules and moderators since the site was founded 11 years ago*, and I've only reinforced this statement over the years, a la: https://archive.moe/a/thread/580080/#580135 To those who actually want to use /v/ to discuss vidya and not a movement that has outgrown 4chan (a la Project Chanology) - apologies for the inconvenience Return] [Catalogl [Top]

The decision to remove "GamerGate" threads has been poorly communicated, and that's my fault. Said threads are being deleted primarily because they violate our blanket "no personal information / raids / calls to invasion" rule. Spamming the reports system and creating multiple topics were also a factor, especially given /v/ is one of 4chan's fastest moving boards and has historically struggled with keeping topics limited to actual video games.

Regarding a perceived lack of free speech/censorship -- many seem to misinterpret my advocating for anonymous communication and highlighting that it allows people to share things they otherwise wouldn't be comfortable with on other platforms as "you can say and do anything on 4chan," which simply isn't the case. We've had rules and moderators since the site was founded 11 years ago, and I've only reinforced this statement over the years, a la: https://archive.moe/q/thread/580080/#580135

To those who actually want to use /v/ to discuss vidya and not a movement that has outgrown 4chan (a la Project Chanology) -- apologies for the inconvenience.

Exodus to 8chan

After experiencing censorship issues while on 4chan, many supporters of #GamerGate subsequently flocked to the rival site 8chan as an alternative image board with fewer restrictions. Users then began to mockingly refer to 4chan as “halfchan” and sarcastically lamented the site’s demise with the expression “4chan is kill.” Supporters temporarily gathered under the board /gg/, but soon fled to a new board titled /gamergate/ after experiencing a general disagreement of moderation practices that were executed by the original owner of the /gg/ board.

Wikipedia Edit War

On September 23rd, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales tweeted that he would be looking into the edit war occurring on the GamerGate Wikipedia article. Two days later, Wales posted 11 tweets addressing the article, referring to it as a "badly written battleground" (shown below). In the period following, Wales continued to be involved with the page and over time had requested various editors to step back from editing the article.^[38]^[39]^[41]

Follow Jimmy Wales @jimmy wales 1/1 remember a controversy at Wikipedia about a breed of dog. When I looked into it, virtually all the editors were activists. 6:27 PM - 25 Sep 2014 28 RETWEETS 26 FAVORITES Follow Jimmy Wales @jimmy_wales 2/What eventually happened, as I recall, is that all the activists on all sides were topic banned. To their dismay 6:28 PM - 25 Sep 2014 26 RETWEETS 25 FAVORITES Follow Jimmy Wales @jimmy_wales 3/And then the Wikipedians were able to write a neutral article that more or less satisfied everyone 6:28 PM - 25 Sep 2014 26 RETWEETS 23 FAVORITES Follow Jimmy Wales @jimmy wales 4/With #gamergate I see the same dynamic. Too many of the people fighting about it care nothing for Wikipedia. Both sides guilty 6:29 PM - 25 Sep 2014 42 RETWEETS 43 FAVORITES

Follow Jimmy Wales @jimmy wales 5/Coming to Wikipedia in order to Right Great Wrongs always ends in sadness. We will be patient with you for a while, but then.. 6:29 PM - 25 Sep 2014 32 RETWEETS 36 FAVORITES Follow Jimmy Wales @jimmy wales 6/The article as it is right now is not unfair to either side It's just a badly written battleground 6:30 PM - 25 Sep 2014 28 RETWEETS 32 FAVORITES Follow Jimmy Wales @jimmy wales 7/lt will take time to sort out but I predict that more people need to be given a long mandatory rest from the article 6:31 PM - 25 Sep 2014 28 RETWEETS 29 FAVORITES Follow Jimmy Wales @jimmy_wales 8/Tomorrow I will write these thoughts up in longer form and invite more Wikipedians who have no axe to grind in the issue to help 6:34 PM - 25 Sep 2014 28 RETWEETS 34 FAVORITES

Follow Jimmy Wales @jimmy wales 9/Meanwhile I invite anyone who wants to try to help and is new to Wikipedia, to take this approach: 6:35 PM - 25 Sep 2014 23 RETWEETS 24 FAVORITES Follow Jimmy Wales @jimmy wales 10/Try to see things from the other side, and spend most of your time making sure that they are being heard accurately. Don't battle 6:35 PM-25 Sep 2014 45 RETWEETS 44 FAVORITES Follow Jimmy Wales @jimmy_wales 11/lnvite your colleagues who are fighting to chill out. The world needs to relax a notch or two. Always.:-) THE END FOR NOW 6:36 PM 25 Sep 2014 36 RETWEETS 57 FAVORITES

C.H. Sommers' Commentaries

On September 16th, 2014, the American Enterprise Institute YouTube channel upload a video in their "Factual Feminist" series titled "Are video games sexist?", in which host Christina Hoff Sommers refutes arguments by feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian (shown below). In the first three weeks, the video gained over 440,000 views and 7,700 comments. As the video began circulating online, GamerGaters began referring to Sommers as "Based Mom." On October 28th, 2014, Ronan Farrow interviewed Sommers about #gamergate at MSNBC. Following the interview, many people criticized the interviewer's behaviour.^[40]

[This video has been removed]

Oppressed Gamergater

Oppressed GamerGater^[31] is an image macro series originally intended to mock the GamerGate community, but later turned into mocking the viewpoints and stances of the opposing side of the controversy. On October 9th, 2014, video game developer Brianna Wu^[33] tweeted an image macro series titled "Oppressed GamerGater" to criticize the GamerGate community.^[32] In reply to this, on the online imageboard 8chan, users started to create new image macros of the character with messages that disagree with the contra-gamergate community.^[30] This development was subsequently shared the next day on the /r/KotakuInAction subreddit.^[34]^[35]

YOUARE LYING I NEVER HIT YOU U ARE TEARING ME APART, LISA YO generator.net eneratorne

NO ONE CARED WHOI WAS THE TILIPUT ON MASK emegenerator.net erriegenerator.ne

TRIES TO MAKE FORCED MEME DO YOU FEELIN CHARGE? memegenerator.net

Brianna Wu Doxxing

On October 10th, an anonymous user on 8chan posted Wu's address, phone number and email to the /gg/ (GamerGate) board. Several users responded denouncing the post and raising suspicions that it was part of a false flag attack (shown below, left). That evening, Wu tweeted that she was contacting the police after receiving threats from a Twitter account named "Death to Brianna" (shown below, right).

File hider 141298516558ing 12 62 KB 400040 3:4 2804322 7247402 702) Uh oh, I accidentally Brianna Wu Name: E-mal The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14 (Fri) 19.5505 ID: 25ea4c No 83806 The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14 (Fri) 19 56 59 ID: 25eaic No 83824 et ouf of here. Brianna 2283800 inb4 she screencaps this post and says OMG MUH SOGGY KNEES on twitter The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14 (Fri) 19:55 38 51bb42 No. 83808 You f----- 83800 The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14 (Fri) 1958 25 ID: f18aad No. 83831 2283851 2283 Reported File ohidti 1412985505721 ng·se , KB, 57-527, 3431, Za g) . The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14(Fri) 19:55 45 10: 5cf464 No 838 10 File 'hdei 1412985344988pg (1044熄280x311. 282311, wsermura) α- ㄧㄧ˙ she is lurking. posted her own info herself 甲~w mate.. 2283300 What are you doin? The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14 (Fri) 19 59 12 ID: 6f1bce No. 83834 Brianna, pls leaf The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14 (Fri) 19:55 38 2283800 go away gnaa bd05d1 No. 83813 The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14 (Fri) 19.59 36 ID: He140 No.83836 File hider 1412985575280 ing s5 KB 200200. 1:1,Seat Daiy Me 283800 The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14 (Fri) 19:55.48 ID f18aad No.83814 why are you trying to get yourself harassed? this is not a game you f------ retard reported, stop trying to fake an attack Brianna The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14 (Fri) 19:55 54 l. 563ddc No 83815 false flag F--- YOU The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14 (Fri) 20:01 58 ID: 4b61e7 No.83846 File hide: 1412985718102 png 892 83 KB. 08 887,508 887. ) 283800 Remember to publicly shame, and discourage doxxers at every occassion, and warn any potential victims regardless of which side they're own or beliefs The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14 (Fri) 20:02:40 ID fa2074 No 83851 쯔 283831 she quoted me lel The Leader of Gamergate 10/10/14 (Fri) 20:03.19 ID: f18aad No.83853 How big is your victim complex Brianna? Can't take a couple people talking about how s--- your game is so you pretend to dox yourself for attention? F--- off

* Brianna Wu ekalgall Follow And, here's the part of the night where l call the police Reply t Retweet ★ Favorite More 19s Death to Brianna @chatterwhiteman spacekatgal I've got a K-Bar and I'm coming to your house so I can J shove it up your ugly feminist c---. 591 215 RETWEETS FAVORITES 8:14 PM-10 Oct 2014

On October 13th, MSNBC covered #Gamergate with Eric Johnson and Brianna wu during which Wu claimed the death threats she recieved came from #Gamergate and 8chan.co (shown below, left). On October 14th, Frederick Brennan and Brianna Wu were featured on a Huffpost live segment in which Wu blamed Brennan and #Gamergate for her doxing, after which Brennan refuted the mistakes of Brianna's explanation (shown below, right).^[37]
On March 17th, 2016, Syfy channel aired episode 102 of "The internet ruined my life". It featured an interview with Brianna Wu about the death threats she received.^[97]

[This video has been removed]

#StopGamerGate2014

On October 14th, 2014, video game critic Anita Sarkeesian tweeted that she canceled her talk at Utah State University when her requests were denied for pat downs or metal detectors after receiving death threats (shown below).

Feminist Frequency @femfreq-16h At this point supporting #gamergate is implicitly supporting the harassment of women in the gaming industry. わta 2.4K ★1.8K 囵 Feminist Frequency @femfreq-16h Multiple specific threats made stating intent to kill me & feminists at USU. For the record one threat did claim affiliation with #gamergate わ 1.9K ★821 Feminist Frequency @femfreq-16h Requested pat downs or metal detectors after mass shooting threat but because of Utah's open carry laws police wouldn't do firearm searches. わ t3 1.TK ★689 ·.. Feminist Frequency @femfreq-17h Forced to cancel my talk at USU after receiving death threats because police wouldn't take steps to prevent concealed firearms at the event わ ta 4.9K ★1.3K

That evening, the hashtag #StopGamerGate2014^[36] began trending worldwide on Twitter, accompanied by tweets denouncing the GamerGate movement as misogynistic and promoting violence toward women.

Worldwide Trends Change #TodoBienHastaQue #HipHopBooks #StopGamerGate2014 #Happy DonghaeDay #SahiNeOldu Dinosaurus Punah PSAT Request DarrenSongs OnDRadio Tom Boyd

Tasneem Raja @tasneemraja #StopGamerGate2014 because someone is literally threatcning to shoot up a school ove feminist criique of video games 9:57 PM- 14 Oct 2014 306 RETWEETS 139 FAVORITES

YouTuber MundaneMatt subsequently posted a video addressing the hashtag, arguing that the majority of the GamerGaters were not represented by those who were sending threats (shown below, left). Meanwhile, YouTuber Boogie2988 posted a video calling for a compromise between the two sides (shown below, right).

[This video has been removed]

On October 15th, 2014, YouTuber Philip DeFranco uploaded a video in which he complies a history of GamerGate up until the #StopGamerGate2014 movement (shown below).

[This video has been removed]

The David Pakman Interview Series

On October 27th, David Pakman began a series of interviews on prominent figures in #GamerGate by interviewing Brianna Wu with questions about the hashtag and her death threats she had received. Towards the end of the interview, Brianna accused David of conducting a hit piece interview.^[52]

On October 28th, Breitbart reporter Milo Yiannopoulos was interviewed during which he gave his side of the story and his view on #Gamergate.^[42]

On October 29th, Pro-Gamergater Jennie Bharaj was interviewed to discuss her views on the issues of video game journalistic corruption and fraud.^[43]

On October 30th, David interviewed Gaming comentator and critic John Bain (TotalBiscuit) to discuss #GamerGate, Journalistic ethics, harassment, gifts, bribes and more.^[44]

On November 4th, Pakman interviewed "Nerd Culture" blogger Arthur Chu about #Gamergate and the critical responses towards #Tweetlikenotyourshield.^[45]

On November 5th, 8chan.co's Admin Fredderick Brennan was interviewed about his site and its relation to #Gamergate.^[46]

On November 6th, Canadian feminist and video game writer Liana Kerzner was brought on to discuss #Gamergate.^[47]

On November 7th, Matthew Rappard from The Fine Young Capitalists was interviewed to discuss their involvement in #Gamergate and the doxxing of Zoe Quinn.^[48]

On November 10th, David took a break from interviewing individuals to explain his own opinion about #GamerGate in response to comments from followers of the series (shown below).

On November 14th, CBC released an article covering #Gamergate in which they portrayed Milo Yiannopoulos and David Pakman as GamerGate Supporter and showed Pakman's video on his opinions of Gamergate while labeling Pakman as a "Harasser of Women."^[54] David Pakman later released a video in response to this.^[25]

Databases

On November 21st, the Independent Game Developers Association (IGDA) released an anti-gamergate Twitter blocklist bot created by Randi Harper which automatically blocked anyone who followed specific Twitter accounts the readme of the tool describes as "GG ringleaders"(shown below).^[49] Due to the tool not analyzing the content of the blocked users,^[50] various independent developers and the chairperson of IGDA Puerto Rico, Roberto Rosario,^[51] ended up on the list. The link was taken down a day later alongside an official reply from the IGDA.^[53]

“Takes a list of the supposed ringleaders of GG, looks at their follower lists. Generates a list of sheeple following more than one account, as well as a list of your followers that might be questionable. This does not rank users. It doesn't look at bios, it doesn't look at hashtags.”

On March 24th, 2015, a man named Matthew Hopkins filed a County Court claim lawsuit against the creator of the blockbot, James Billingham.^[74] But the claim has been discontinued.^[75]

On May 8th, 2015, a redditor named BoneGolem created the website deepfreeze.it,^[71] which is designed to help consumers determine the reliability of various video game journalism sites. TechRaptor writer Allistair Pinsof claims that the site would be the future of GamerGate^[72] while Jonathan Homes of Destructoid expressed concerns that it only lists negative traits and could be perceived as biased.^[73]

DeepFreeze Ethical alternative CHRISTCENTERED Your trust should be earned GMER 320 entries on file, 100 entries filed in the last month Learn about Visit Journalists Outlets Articles Entries About

On September 1st, 2014, a GamerGate wiki was made by a user named Drybones and hosted on the gamergate.me site,^[67] which is serving as a separate database with articles and a timeline.^[68] Around January 6 of 2015, WordPress user JennOfHardwie had started a list documenting cases of harassment against Gamergate.^[69] On GitGud, Another database, known as the Current Happenings List^[70] also attempts to detail the timeline of the event and movement. The oldest documented edit of the List dates back to October 19th, 2014, but the edit is a rename. The list itself seems to date back to August of that year as it started documenting data from that time.

#PizzaGate

On February 1st, 2015, Twitter user @KachoArinoDesu^[26] tweeted a screenshot of an edited Brianna Wu tweet asking if "pineapple on pizza" was a euphemism for "penis" accompanied by the hashtag "#PizzaGate" (shown below).

That evening, GamerGate supporters tweeted various pizza-themed jokes with the hashtag, including other edited tweets by feminist figures like Anita Sarkeesian (shown below), many of which mocked GamerGate criticisms. In 24 hours, the hashtag was tweeted over 18,900 times according to the Twitter analytics site Topsy.^[28] Meanwhile, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales posted several #PizzaGate tweets which were subsequently posted on the /r/KotakuInAction^[29] subreddit (shown below, middle).

june @shoe0nhead Following actually it's about ethics in italian cuisine #pizzagate #NotYourTopping わ ★..。 Trends Change #withdad Promoted by Nissan #UFC183 #Ruin AFriendshipIn5Words Silva #HappyBirthdayHarryStyles Diaz Super Bow #PizzaGate D'Angelo #Apex2015 RETWEETS FAVORITES 2:20 AM-1 Feb 2015

Jimmy Wales @jimmy_wales Feb 1 And I am a strong supporter of topping equality in all cases. #pizzagate わ t: 251 ★301 … Jimmy Wales @jimmy_wales Feb 1 However I can say those who think #pizzagate is really about pineapple should not let the trolls define you. わ t7 177 ★160 … Jimmy Wales @jimmy_wales Feb 1 My personal views on pineapple on pizza are not important. I only care that Wikipedia describo tho facts. #pizzagate わ t3 263 ★315 …

* Mordeth Kai @Mordeth_Kai Follow #PizzaGate How much tragedy, pain, and danger of toxic pineapple? Feminist Frequency @femfreq We need to seriously address connections between sausage olives and toxic ideas of pineapple before boys and men commit more mass shootings. 10/24/14, 15:49 RETWEETS FAVORITES 9 6 425 AM-2 Feb 2015

Also on February 1st, YouTuber MundaneMatt uploaded a video titled "WTF is #PizzaGate," which explained the origins of the hashtag and how it could be helpful for the GamerGate cause (shown below). On February 2nd, The Mirror^[27] published an article about #PizzaGate.

[This video has been removed]

Calgary Expo & The Honey Badger Brigade

On April 17th, 2015, a group of co-hosts of the Honey Badger Brigade (HBB), an online radio show, set up a booth at the Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo (CalEx) at which they also sold GamerGate-related merchandise (shown below, left). That same date, the official CalEx Twitter account shared that they didn't allow a GamerGate booth after being approached by it and were looking into it.^[58] According to research by pop culture website Themarysue,^[59] HBB used the webcomic of one of their members to apply for vendor status and not their own site. Also according to an earlier crowdfund organised by the HBB to attend to CalEx, they were initially working in "stealth mode"^[60] in order to be able to attend (shown below, right).

THICS | | WEY BADGER BRIGADE . CALGARY 2015. EARTH ICHT T PUT THE DOGS DOWN COURGE

Doug March 21, 2015 at 8:53 pm I am looking at the expo list and don't see your name on it. Did you get a booth or not and under what make is it? I would like to get my Detroit shirt signed by GWW but the only day I might be able to make it is Thursday because that is the only day left for tickets. REPLY POST AUTHOR badgerfeed March 21, 2015 at 11:21 pm We will be available at our booth for all four days. We're in stealth mode due to concerns about "ahem* people of a certain persuasion deciding to hassle the con organizers over having us space lepers at the show. I will be updating our name as soon as we have the fundraiser vid up! (Although I don't know when it will change because the con organizers have to do stuff on their end.) REPLY

On April 17th, following a Q&A session at a panel event where a member of the HBB publicly disagreed with one of the panelists (recording below),^[56] the HBB's booth was approached by convention staff and requested to leave. According to security staff at the expo, they had received complaints over the presence of a GamerGate booth on social media, including 25 allegations of harassment,^[57] although details of these allegations remain vague. The official twitter account for CalEx released a tweet on the eviction later that day, which stated that the reason lied with their show policies.^[65] The next day, the official Youtube account for the HBB uploaded a video of their member Alison Tieman, the same person who publicly disagreed with the panelist, explaining the events of that day from their perspective.^[66]

On April 19th, the HBB organized a meetup in a park to not dissappoint fans of the radio show, but were shortly interrupted by the police which were allerted by the Expo's staff according to the officer at the scene.^[61] On April 25th, the HBB announced they are seeking legal advice to hold the Calgary Expo accountable^[62] and launched a crowdfund alongside this.^[63] The events surrounding the HBB's eviction from the expo and the events following this were also discussed on Twitter under the hashtag #ExpoGate.^[64]

SPJ Airplay debate

On August 15th, journalist Michael Koretzky held an event as part of the 2015 regional conference of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) at Koubek Center, Miami: Airplay (shown below), a two-session panel meant to present the pro-GamerGate side of the story to the media. The first session was about gaming media and how its journalists can do a better job. The second was about how mainstream media can and should cover online controversies. Among the panelists where Christina Hoff Sommers, Milo Yiannopoulos, Washington Examiner's Ashe Schow, Breitbart writer Allum Bokhari, and games writer Mark Ceb.^[98]

Around 2:30PM, Police began clearing the Koubek Center after receiving a "credible" bomb threat. The threat was for the bomb to go off at 2:45. About 75 people were forced to wait a block and a half away while police dogs were taken inside. After the center was searched, the police said that no physical evidence was found to suggest a public threat.^[99] The threat was the second in two days for the conference after organizers had the building swept on Friday. An independent security team was hired for the event and locked down the facility overnight, according to Koretzky.^[100]

Despite the bomb threats, a Q&A was still held.^[101]
Later, Yiannopoulos published an article on Breitbart about the remarks he wanted to make at the panel^[102]

#SavePoint SXSW 2016 Panel

On October 19th, The Open Gaming Society announced their panel about "the current social-political climate of the gaming community" and "the importance of ethical integrity in gaming journalism" had been accepted for the 2016 South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW).^[93] That panel would be hosted by game developer Nick Robalik, President-Elect of the Society of Professional Journalists Lynn Walsh and GamerGate supporter and adult film actress Mercedes Carrera.

#SAVEPOINT A DISCUSSION ON THE GAMING COMMUNITY MERCEDES CARRERA LYNN WALSH NICK ROBALIK ORGANIZED BY: We the Gamers THE OPEN GAMING SOCIETY SXSW 2016 The goal of this panel is to discuss the current social-political climate of the gaming community, the importance of ethical integrity in gaming journalism, and the future of both the community and the industry. Our community and industry face unique and interesting challenges, and we want to bring them to the forefront of public discussion. We can't wait to bring our community together and to have an open and honest discussion. www.TheOpenGamingSociety.org @OPGamingSociety fb.com/TheOpenGamingSociety

On October 22nd, writer Arthur Chu tweeted that he would not be attending SXSW due to the GamerGate panel (shown below).^[92]

Arthur @arthur affect Follow affect I'm not going to be at @sxsw this year or possibly ever, in part because they decided to host a GamerGate panel

On October 26th, SXSW^[91] posted an announcement that the "SavePoint" panel had been canceled along with an anti-GamerGate panel titled "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games" due to "numerous threats of on-site violence." The same day, The Open Gaming Society^[89] posted a statement regarding the event's cancellation, revealing that they would be "organizing, funding and hosting" the panel themselves. Meanwhile, tweets containing the hashtag #gamergate and #sxsw increased dramatically according to the Twitter analytics site Topsy^[90] (shown below).

Tweets per day: gamergate and sxsw September 27th-October 27th 25K 20K 15K 10K 5K 9/29 10/1 10/4 107 10/10 10/13 10/16 10/19 10/22 10/25 gamergate 22,806 SXSW 42,153 ANALYTICS BYTOPSY

On October 27th, BuzzFeed^[94] announced plans to withdraw from SXSW if the conference refused to reverse its decision to cancel the two panels and published a letter sent to SXSW interactive director Hugh Forrest from BuzzFeed staff. The same day, Vox Media revealed on their tech news site The Verge^[95] that they would not attend SXSW "unless it takes harassment seriously." Meanwhile, SXSW^[96] published a follow-up statement responding to criticism, claiming they were "working with local law enforcement to assess the various threats" and would be "evaluating several programming solutions."

/r/KotakuInAction Discord

On July 12th, 2018, the creator of the subreddit shut down the forum, calling it a "cancerous growth" and expressing their regret of having started the subreddit. In the post, he criticized the attitudes and actions of the users of /r/KotakuInAction, the GamerGate movement and Reddit. They wrote:

"KiA is one of the many cancerous growths that have infiltrated reddit. The internet. The world. I did this. Now I am undoing it. This abomination should have always been aborted.

So in this moment with years of contemplation, I am Stopping it. I'm closing shop and I can't allow anyone to exploit my handicap. I've watched and read every day. Every single day. The mods are good at what they do, but they are moderating over a sub that should not exist. The users have created content that should not be. Topics that do not require debate. And often times molded by outside forces.

We are better than this. I should have been better than this. Just look at the comment history of any users history. The hate is spread by very few, but very often. Overwhelmingly so.

Reddit and it's Admins are Me. They are the stewards of hate and divisiveness and they let it go. They go so far as to even claim there is nothing they can do about it. Those with upvotes could have been stopped by others with equally powerful downvotes. Fallacy. 100 evil people with 100,000 upvotes can not be defeated by 100,000 with 100 downvotes.
Don't let Reddit pretend otherwise. They know what goes on here. They know everything. So either they choose to allow it, or $$$$ makes them. Corporate needs #'s. Bigger the number, the better. This is Un-American and everything wrong with what is now the inevitable result of true capitalism. 10000 people living in destitution can never effectively stand up to the .1% who control everything. Incorporation, Copyright's, monopolie a result. We are a Democratic Republic and the winners created institutions where the losers keep losing. Small business need to thrive if we are to be a healthy nation. Incorporation's will always lead to monopolies. There is no other outcome. They paid their way… invested…. into feigning the populace that they are doing what is in their best interest.

"Righting a Wrong.

Beginnings

I created KIA thinking no one would join, and when I awoke, I had many hundreds of orange-reds. "Wow, WTF did I say or do that caused this?" KiA began. I'm surprised and excited that we had over 100 users. So I began. So 'it' began. I created a few rudimentary rules and began enforcing them. The next days added a couple hundred and then a few thousand. This was becoming a monster.

The Birth

I was moderating 24/7 and it was clear that I could not sustain these rules on my own. These rules were the site rules. Don't break them and you don't get banned. It's only fair. Free speech needs protection, even unwanted and hurtful speech. Hate speech was allowed, but I was having difficulty defining everything. Does saying 'n****r' 'c**t' as a noun, the same as using it as a verb. So I began seeking help from users that I believed had the subreddit's purpose and shared my own vision for it's future.

Moderation.

I'm not sure how, but it was a success. The next top mod was an A personality and highly knowledgeable of the subs content. Amazing. Everything was going as planned. Despite JR's infiltration and attempted creation of a scandal. TwasIWhoShotJR. We began a great chat IRC and then even began livestreams. Sometimes with 'famous' guests having insane meltdowns. That was drama. Going forward We worked on creating fundamental rules and attempting to wrestle with how to define what content was acceptable. We still can't get this perfect despite public outcry and threats.
The next steps

Everything was going as planned and as its creator and top moderator, I was able to give shape and vision to it's continued future. In doing so we over moderated. At least we thought we were. Bans up the wazoo and massive amounts of removed comments. In retrospect we were mostly unable to, as users found ways around the rules. We did get better.
Hate.

This was a dark time. We were wrestling with how to control hate speech. Not only what was said, but what people could link to. KiA became infested with racism and sexism …. and other ism's ( though many ism's are not real). GG forums were created on KiwiFarms and 8chan as a result. This was the best and worst thing. The monster was now a virus. We banned links to, and then mention of certain links and topics. Now we became the enemy.
A new phase

This is when I handed over supervisory control. I really wanted to close the sub. I was in the process of until I was superseded not to. I've been wanting to close every day since. I was just too scared of the backlash. How ironic is that? I've been trying to please everyone when I should be forcing my wants and visions for the subreddit to be executed.
I rolled over and played dead.

After this, nothing much matters. I was too weak. I let the other mods dictate. My own flaws and faults compromised my ability to raise my iron fist. This was a monumental failure. I'm ASD and GAD. Many of you know this. Many of you don't believe this.
I have allowed myself confidence and an ability to assert myself. I've been captive my entire life and now I have the ability to make my own decisions and to correct my mistakes. KiA is a huge one. I think about this daily and dream about it. It's a boogeyman. The monster under my bed in my head.

Until now. KiA is one of the many cancerous growths that have infiltrated reddit. The internet. The world. I did this. Now I am undoing it. This abomination should have always been aborted.

So in this moment with years of contemplation, I am Stopping it. I'm closing shop and I can't allow anyone to exploit my handicap. I've watched and read every day. Every single day. The mods are good at what they do, but they are moderating over a sub that should not exist. The users have created content that should not be. Topics that do not require debate. And often times molded by outside forces.

We are better than this. I should have been better than this. Just look at the comment history of any users history. The hate is spread by very few, but very often. Overwhelmingly so.

Reddit and it's Admins are Me. They are the stewards of hate and divisiveness and they let it go. They go so far as to even claim there is nothing they can do about it. Those with upvotes could have been stopped by others with equally powerful downvotes. Fallacy. 100 evil people with 100,000 upvotes can not be defeated by 100,000 with 100 downvotes.
Don't let Reddit pretend otherwise. They know what goes on here. They know everything. So either they choose to allow it, or $$$$ makes them. Corporate needs #'s. Bigger the number, the better. This is Un-American and everything wrong with what is now the inevitable result of true capitalism. 10000 people living in destitution can never effectively stand up to the .1% who control everything. Incorporation, Copyright's, monopolie a result. We are a Democratic Republic and the winners created institutions where the losers keep losing. Small business need to thrive if we are to be a healthy nation. Incorporation's will always lead to monopolies. There is no other outcome. They paid their way… invested…. into feigning the populace that they are doing what is in their best interest.

I may be ASD, but I'm no longer a victim. Shout out to /r/The_Donald/ . Compared to you, I'm a Mini-Me. I'm scratching an itch, yet you are a viral cancer that is destroying the minds of millions of Reddit users each day; And they allow it. They, in fact, have to. Conflict breeds users and drives viewer counts, driving advertisers and required profits. After all, who would invest in a company that loses money? Reddit is only a small problem, but I'll end it here. Those with power use it to create a stronger hold on that power. Human nature to be #1.

At least Reddit is sooo overly tolerant that they could never remove this post.
https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote

https://www.indivisible.org/ Thanks to (ironcally) Google. This looks like and sounds like a rant. It's not. It's a warning. Free the free press. The 1st amendment demands it. KotakuinAction has beed a wildly successful failure in this endevour of The 1st. Thanks /r/The_donald . You've shown me the darkness. I'm hoping to pave your way to the light."

The post has since been removed from /r/KotakuInAction and placed on /r/drama.^[104]

Following the post, the subreddit was briefly shutdown.

That day, /r/KotakuInAction moderator HandofBane posted about the outage.^[105] They wrote:

"So, some of you may have noticed (as the 60-ish modmails asking what happened can affirm) that the sub went private for about 45-50 minutes not too long ago. Here's what happened:

david-me apparently went off the deep end, making a long screed post on another sub about nuking KiA as he made KiA private, kicked the entire mod team, nuked the CSS, and generally made a clusterfuck of things. Thankfully, an amazing admin was online who helped restore everything, and has locked david's permissions to mail-only while an investigation goes on into the matter later before they decide if anything further needs to be done. We don't expect him to stay at the top of the list afterward, but that's more in the admins' hands than ours right now. He was supposed to act as an emergency failsafe in case one of us did what he did to the sub – clearly he failed at that role.

In the mean time, we are sorting out what's still broken and what we can fix easily. Flairs may not be fully back, but some appear to be. We are seeing what else isn't quite working right, if you notice something not working how it did yesterday, please drop us a modmail so we can look into fixing it.

Apologies to everyone for the downtime, hopefully this gets sorted out to where that can never happen again."