GamerGate

In Computer Game Culture, Gamergate (sometimes referred to as the Hash Tag #GamerGate) is an online movement which emerged around false allegations of unethical conduct levied against indie game developer Zoe Quinn in August 2014. Some supporters have stated that they are concerned with ethical issues in video game Journalism, particularly conflicts of interest between video game journalists and developers. However, Gamergate has become most notable for a series of misogynistic and violent threats and harassment targeting Quinn and other prominent women in gaming, drawing widespread condemnation. The movement's unwillingness or inability to control the attacks carried out in its name is generally seen as preventing constructive engagement. The harassment campaigns against women, combative rhetoric, and criticism of those examining video games from feminist or other minority perspectives has resulted in the movement being widely viewed as fighting a Culture War against the increasing diversity of video game culture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy

I wrote a little Python [script](https://github.com/Bill Seitz/sycorax/blob/master/tweetUserCount.py) that grabbed tweets from Twitter using the phrase gamergate. It grabbed roughly 16k tweets over a roughly 18hr period from Friday night through Saturday afternoon. Twelve "people" had 50 or more matching tweets during that period.

Jan'2015: Wikipedia is having problems dealing with it well. Whether the committee knew it or not, it was expressly doing the bidding of a group of Gamergaters who plotted to take control of the Wikipedia article. A page on Gamergate's own wiki site details a campaign launched in November called "Operation Five Horsemen," which asked supporters to repeatedly report Ryulong and four other editors to administrators in hopes of halting their work on the Gamergate page. The NPOV model creates challenges, just like Jay Rosen's points about "balanced" Journalism.

Feb'2015: one of the scarier threat-makers (JaceConnors), who made a video in which he claimed to have crashed his car while en route to the home of Brianna Wu turns out to be a sketch comedian (Jan Rankowski).

I moved some more general thoughts to Cyber-Bullying.