If the name Brianna Wu doesn't ring a bell, it should. The last time we had a story on Wu, it was because the hate-fueled online mob known as Gamergate drove her and her husband out of their own home out of fear.

Now, Gamergate has once again decided to make her a target of harassment. Well, I say that like they haven't been constantly harassing her on a near daily basis already. What I should say is that these past few days, Gamergate has greatly stepped up their harassment against Wu. Why? Well, her dog, Crash, was ill and unfortunately it passed away. Gamergate took this as an open door invitation to mock and harass Wu and her recently deceased pet.

These past few days, Wu was sent photos of mutilated dogs to her email account by people that identified themselves as Gamergate supporters. They went so far as to berate her through Twitter just prior to her dog dying.


These people obviously blind to the fact that Wu did say she was at the vet with her pet and that Twitter is available outside of a desktop PC. Some Gamergate supporters even went so far as to suggest that Wu poisoned her own dog just to gain "victim points."


Even after her dog passed, the harassment continued.


Even today, Wu was still under attack by Gamergate supporters demanding to know why she wanted them to stop harassing her on Sunday night as her dog was dying. Yes, they actually wanted to know why she wanted them to stop harassing her if only for a day. Let that sink in as you read the following (bottom to top).


I'd like to say that the story ends there, but it doesn't. Somehow, it actually manages to get even worse. Gamergate supporters have created fake Twitter accounts of Wu's dog that they are using solely to hurt her and harass her with.


Milo Yiannopoulos, the pseudo-reporter for Brietbart and prominent supporter of Gamergate (when it positively affects his wallet) issued a few Tweets of his own today that were directed at Brinna Wu. Keep in mind that this is the same Milo that, prior to the start of Gamergate, publicly insulted people who played games on numerous occasions, routinely writes factually incorrect and factually skewed pieces, and who also routinely issues misogynistic and bigoted statements.


This comes shortly after another Gamergate supporter snapped a photo of himself outside of the workplace where ggautoblocker creator, Randi Harper, works at. Harper has also come under fire as of late for creating and helping to curate the easy to use tool that automatically blocks thousands of Gamergate supporters on Twitter. The tool is meant to help stop harassment from Gamergate supporters and can be freely used by any person. Gamergate has incorrectly viewed the tool as a means of censoring them and have harassed Harper on a near daily basis as a result. Ironic, right?


But hey, all of this creepy stalking, harassment, and threats aren't real, right? I mean, that's what I keep seeing spammed in my Twitter mentions by Gamergate supporters any time I retweet or call out Gamergate on their BS, so clearly it's all just a fabrication! It must be true that it's really about ethics in games journalism then, right? Well no, it's not. The harassment is very real. The threats are very real. The inhuman garbage that is Tweeted at people within the industry on a near daily basis is very, very real. The above is just from two days of harassment and I did not include everything simply as a matter of there just being so much of it to gather. Now imagine this happening non-stop for months against people in the industry.

I will say that not every member of Gamergate is directly guilty of harassment. However, those people that aren't directly involved in the harassment still believe that Gamergate stands for something that it clearly does not and has never stood for. Those people continue to support a campaign of hate. Those people, whether they realize it or not, help to contribute to the problem of Gamergate by defending those that are doing these inhuman and vile things to people within the industry. There are people that will blindly rise to the defense of Gamergate by spreading propaganda and lies via a multitude of cherry picked or fake images, or linking to self-serving articles any time someone even mentions that hashtag or movement in a negative light on Twitter. That isn't something you should want to associate with in your life.

Maybe you think this is just some Internet "game" that has no real world repercussions. If you think that, perhaps you should arrive at the startling realization that these are real people you're harassing. This isn't a "war." There is no "us vs. them" here. "Anti-gamergate" doesn't exist. "Anti-gamergate" are the millions and billions of people that you wake up and see day in and day out, maybe even only in passing. They aren't on a "side" in this fantasy war Gamergate believe exists. "Anti-gamergate" are those millions and billions of decent human beings that work each day to make the world a better, more equal, more civil place for everybody to live.

This isn't a game. This is life. Maybe it's time you woke up and realized that.

(h/t on some images and info to Huffington Post, Darth_Nikon via Storify, Izzy Galvez, Randi Harper, Brianna Wu, Grace Lynn, and Untimely Gamer)