Brianna Wu, head of the independent gaming studio Giant Spacekat, was the target of a series of tweets containing death threats on Friday; one published her home address (since redacted). The poster's Twitter account has been disabled.
Wu responded on Friday night with the tweet:
Brianna Wu @Spacekatgal
The police just came by. Husband and I are going somewhere safe.
Remember, #gamergate isn't about attacking women.
GamerGate supporters denounced the threats and "doxxing" against Wu and disavowed the poster. However, several suspected that the tweets were a false flag created by anti-GamerGate forces:
Sun Knight @SunKnightO
@Sen_Armstrong @Spacekatgal @chatterwhiteman It's clearly either a troll or false flag shame that people actually think its legit.
(Score: 1) by boltronics on Monday October 13 2014, @02:08AM
How is it considered doxxing, when the street address, e-mail address and phone number of this person are all published online in public records?
Yeah, the person harassing and posting death threats is a real jerk and I hope the law is able to come down on him/her. But I don't understand what the whole "doxxing" thing was supposed to be about here.
It's GNU/Linux dammit!
(Score: 1) by boltronics on Monday October 13 2014, @02:28AM
In fact, I don't even see why the threats are considered to be someone anti-GamerGate. What does GamerGate have to do with any of this? GamerGate is about responsibility and transparency in gaming journalism, and is inclusive to all people. Women, feminists, whoever, it doesn't matter. If you care about transparency in gaming press, you're not just welcome in GamerGate; you should *be* a part of pro-GamerGate. Heck, if Reddit and 4chan can be on the same page, GamerGate must be as inclusive as it gets. :)
Sure, it all started with Zoe Quinn who directly helped expose corruption. She was a feminist, and waved the feminist flag, exclaiming that this is why she was really attacked (which is obviously untrue). Then the gaming press decided that the best way to defend their actions was to label the pro-GamerGate people as anti-feminist male gamers (also obviously untrue, but it worked to their advantage by attempting to change and twist the issue). Then lots of feminists joined in to help Zoe based on the lies of Zoe and the gaming press, and it snowballed. Feminists would actually be pro-GamerGate, if they understood the movement and weren't fed lies by so many.
Yes, there are jerks on the Internet. We've seen "doxxing" on both sides (if that's really a thing) - I wish people would be more respectful of others' regardless of opinion. But these individuals do not represent what the movement is about.
In the end, the anti-GamerGate people consist of more people than a few feminist groups. The only thing this does is try to play to the narrative that gaming press have been spinning so they don't need to defend themselves from their corruption. This is not actually a GamerGate issue at all, and I get annoyed that it's even mentioned here - even if it is just to deny association with what has happened.
It's GNU/Linux dammit!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @04:30AM
And what corruption is that? Please explain in detail and post links directly supporting your claim.
(Score: 1) by boltronics on Monday October 13 2014, @08:47AM
I already posted a bunch of links that summarise the situation nicely.
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=4243&cid=102932 [soylentnews.org]
Specifically about some of the collusion that has since came up:
WTF is the GameJournoPros Google Group? #GamerGate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQMOY9HcOf4&list=UUxXUQuvoiIAlpM2osoAitjQ [youtube.com]
So I just spoke with a member of GameJournoPro's email list... #GamerGate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTxf6W3kdwU&list=UUxXUQuvoiIAlpM2osoAitjQ [youtube.com]
On the 28th of August, we had all these sources basically tell us that gamers are dead:
Gamesasutra - 'Gamers' don't have to be your audience. 'Gamers' are over.
https://archive.today/l1kTW [archive.today]
Kotaku - We Might Be Witnessing The 'Death of An Identity'
https://archive.today/YlBhH [archive.today]
Polygon - An awful week to care about video games
https://archive.today/rkvO8#selection-1195.0-1195.39 [archive.today]
Dan Golding - 'Gamers' are over
http://dangolding.tumblr.com/post/95985875943/the-end-of-gamers [tumblr.com]
ArsTechnica - The death of the "gamers" and the women who killed them
https://archive.today/i928J#selection-567.0-567.57 [archive.today]
This strongly hinted at collusion, and it was through enough digging that we learned of the GameJournoPros Google Group.
There are a hundred other issues I haven't touched on. If you're not clued up on what is going on by now, you're probably not going to read these anyway.
It's GNU/Linux dammit!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @10:34AM
A bunch of games media outlets posting more-or-less the same story in a short timespan strongly hints that games media has exactly as much creativity as mainstream media. Oh, look: CNN is running stories on Furgeson - get a team down there right away! Media is a conversation among journalists that we're all allowed to watch, so yeah, when a new story "breaks," you should expect every outlet to post their special take on that story. Conspiracy not required.
(Score: 1) by boltronics on Monday October 13 2014, @11:15AM
Call it what you will, it turned out to be both warranted and helpful in this case.
It's GNU/Linux dammit!