GamerGate Supporters Force Another Female Game Developer Out of Her Home Due to Threats and Harassment

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  • GamerGate Supporters Force Another Female Game Developer Out of Her Home Due to Threats and Harassment

    Brianna Wu, the founder of game developer Giant Spacekat, has been driven out of her home due to harassment and threats made to her online. The threats largely came from one online user that found her and her husband's home address and then proceeded to make some rather horrific threats towards Wu.

    Here are the Tweets sent to Wu last night from a now suspended Twitter account. I will say that if you don't like swearing or disturbing descriptions of violence, you shouldn't read this.


    Wu stated on Twitter that they have contacted the police as a result of these threats. She continued on to say that she and her husband are going "somewhere safe" for the night.

    Wu also mentioned that last night's harassment began because GamerGate supporters posted her personal information over 8chan. Why? Because she Tweeted some amusing meme images about GamerGate and the type of people the group attracts. For an example of the fairly innocent images she Tweeted, see the top image of this post.

    GamerGate supporters on 8chan then decided to take over the meme by creating a ton of spam images on Meme Generator. As time went on the images ended up being rather disturbing as 8chan and GamerGate worked tirelessly to destroy what was essentially an innocent meme. Some of the images, seen below, even targeted Wu directly.

    The posting of Wu's private information came shortly after when GamerGate grew tired of her complaining about the idiotic stunts they were pulling with regards to the meme. Shortly after came the death threats and harassment.

    Wu is the latest woman driven out of her home as a result of threats and harassment from GamerGate supporters. In the past few months, both Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn were also driven out of their homes due to GamerGate. They were (and continue to be) the victims of harassment and threats made online. They, like Wu, also had their private information posted online.

    A few hours ago, Wu mentioned that this harassment will not dissuade her from making games.

    However, the latest from Wu mentions how people are now trying to illegally obtain Giant Spacekate's financial accounts.

    Remember that the only thing Wu is guilty of here is being a woman, being in the game industry, and being against the hate, harassment, and vitriol that GamerGate stands for.

    As a nice reminder to GamerGate supporters: While you personally may not be one of the people doing the harassing, you are as much a part of the problem as those who are directly doing the harassing. By defending the actions of other GamerGate supporters, or by saying nothing at all, or by getting upset at being "attacked" and not upset that vile actions like this are taking place, you are just as bad (if not worse) as those directly carrying out these attacks of hate.

    • Shawn Zipay
      #1
      Shawn Zipay commented
      Editing a comment
      Less than an hour ago Anita Sarkeesian Tweeted the following:

      The people going to these measures are fucking disgusting.

    • CptainCrunch
      #2
      CptainCrunch commented
      Editing a comment
      What gets me are all the people saying they are not for harassment and gamersgate is about equality, then the tweets and websites say the opposite.

      Its just a confusing mess and people should find other organizations that have a proven track record with what they believe instead of following and support this mess.

    • Shawn Zipay
      #3
      Shawn Zipay commented
      Editing a comment
      Originally posted by CptainCrunch
      What gets me are all the people saying they are not for harassment and gamersgate is about equality, then the tweets and websites say the opposite.

      Its just a confusing mess and people should find other organizations that have a proven track record with what they believe instead of following and support this mess.
      Yep, that's essentially it.

      There are many GamerGate people that are all for equality and integrity but they're associating themselves with a toxic movement. They don't want to accept that, so they then defend it, which in turn adds to the harassment. It's just a huge mess. And like I mentioned at the end of the OP, if I really stood for equality and integrity then there is no way I would ever want to be associated with such a vile and toxic group that has literally done nothing that they claim to stand for.

      EDIT:
      John Walker from RPS put up a new blog on his personal site about #GamerGate:


      Here's just a small excerpt:
      My personal experience of GamerGate has been predominantly horrendous. I know, from experience of trying to communicate this to the more benign participants, that I need to repeat: my personal experience of it. Not my interpretation, or my parody, or my leaping to conclusions based on things I’ve read. But how it has reached me, entered my life. I have received abundant and appalling abuse from GG, that has been at times upsetting, infuriating, and frightening. I’ve received thousands of tweets that have been insulting, offensive, outrageously inaccurate, spiteful, cruel, or disturbing. Not one or two. Thousands. I’ve had boring, tiresome insults thrown at me in droves, and specific, distressing descriptions of how people would like me to be killed. I’ve been told so many times how people would like to see my business (Rock, Paper, Shotgun) destroyed, to see me bankrupted. And I have repeatedly been informed of the ways in which I should commit suicide. This has been in response to my stating how upset I have been by the treatment of women in the industry who have received rape and death threats, making snide remarks or jokes, or indeed simply because I’m an owner of and writer for RPS. I’ve had genuinely deranged MS Paint images made that purport to discredit my integrity/honesty, I’ve had videos watched by over a million people stating bemusing lies about me. My business has been the target of carefully coordinated (and wholly unsuccessful) attempts to reduce our advertising revenue, based on an imagined article we’ve never published, and targeted by GG to be boycotted because of our having once linked to articles not liked by the movement, despite our writing a lengthy piece explaining why we disagreed with said articles. No matter how at fault one might believe me to be, GamerGate has been, toward me, horrendous.

    • Thortok2000
      #4
      Thortok2000 commented
      Editing a comment
      The problem I see is twofold. First is that those who have any kind of 'noble' aims for gamergate have not really clearly defined them as far as I can see (although about my only exposure to it is this site. Then again this is really the only gamer news site I read anymore.)

      Second, is that they have not disassociated themselves sufficiently from the lunatics that give death threats. There's no clear and divisible "that's not us" kind of line drawn in the sand. The lunatics use the hash tag, the people with good intentions use the same hash tag. No division.

      So yes, the good are going to get lumped in with the bad that way. The good just need to stop using the tag and come up with some other tag and a clearly defined set of goals. Leave 'gamergate' to the lunatics and let it earn a negative stigma already instead of fighting in support of any decency you meant it to have. That died a long time ago.

      Some lunatics took a good idea and broke it. It's dead. Let it go. Move on. Stop trying to defend it.

      And that's playing devil's advocate that there's anything good at all, but obviously some people think there is, so, eh, whatever.

      I'm really about ready for the whole mess to be over, it's just so stupid I hate hearing about it. But that doesn't stop people from getting death threats.

      The only thing I can think of that's going to stop this is criminal charges when the line is crossed that severely, and negative social stigma. Anything less and it's just going to continue because people will get away with whatever other people let them get away with.
      Last edited by Thortok2000; 10-13-2014, 05:40 AM.

    • ChinesesRubdown
      #5
      ChinesesRubdown commented
      Editing a comment
      Thanks for fighting the good fight Zips. Hopefully some of those sending out these threats can be tracked down and charged, and then maybe this whole rotten mess can finally end.
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