Gamergate

Gamergate or GamerGate (GG) was a loosely organized misogynistic online harassment campaign motivated by a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. It was conducted using the hashtag "#Gamergate" primarily in 2014 and 2015. Gamergate targeted women in the video game industry, most notably feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian and video game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu. Gamergate began with an August 2014 blog entry by Quinn's ex-boyfriend, which falsely insinuated that Quinn had received a favorable review because of Quinn's sexual relationship with a games journalist. The blog post was spread to 4chan, where many users had disparaged Quinn's work. This led to a campaign of harassment against Quinn, coordinated through anonymous message boards such as 4chan, 8chan, and Reddit. The campaign expanded to target Sarkeesian, Wu, and others who defended Quinn, and included doxing, rape threats, and death threats. Gamergate proponents ("Gamergaters") claimed to be promoting ethics in video game journalism and protecting the "gamer" identity in opposition to "political correctness" and the perceived influence of feminism and "social justice warriors" on video game culture. Proponents alleged there was a conspiracy between journalists and developers to focus on progressive social issues such as gender equality and sexism. Such claims have been widely dismissed as trivial, baseless, or unrelated to actual issues of ethics in gaming and journalism. Several commentators in the mass media dismissed the complaints as a cover for the harassment. Gamergaters frequently denied any such harassment took place, falsely claiming it to be manufactured by the victims. 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. Supporters stated that it was a social movement. However, as a movement, Gamergate had no clearly...