There was a fairly recent Pew Poll done on the prevalence of online harassment. Apparently four-in-ten people have experienced some form of online harassment in their experience on the internet.

Online harassment is a serious issue for people of all identities; whether male, female, homosexual, transgender, white, black, Asian, etc. According to the poll,

“Overall, men are somewhat more likely than women to experience at least one of the elements of online harassment, 44% vs. 37%. In terms of specific experiences, men are more likely than women to encounter name-calling, embarrassment, and physical threats.”

I’m discussing online harassment surrounding a recent scandal that has been heavily discussed within the gaming community called #GamerGate. For a neutral view of what the #GamerGate scandal is about, you can review the following image

As a female Cuban gamer discussing the #GamerGate scandal, I have been harassed on various social media sites like Twitter and Reddit as well as by phone and even receiving emails at work. Due to the harassment that I have personally received as well as harassment I have witnessed of fellow gamers discussing #GamerGate, I have decided to compile all instances of harassment witnessed on various media platforms.

I find this endeavor especially important due to the little coverage by mainstream media of the harassment gamers receive that discuss #GamerGate. Instead, we mainly witness coverage of harassment those opposed to discussing the #GamerGate scandal receive. It is not a competition of who is harassed more, all harassment is abhorrent and should be recognized.

I have collected images as well as archived links to the harassment in question for your review. Please contact me on Twitter @JennOfHardwire or Reddit by the same handle if you have further instances to supply of gamers being harassed for discussing corruption in the gaming industry via the #GamerGate scandal. I will be continuously updating this piece.

Instances of targeted harassment:

“I made the choice to share amalgamated clients with any and all personal and protected information. This includes names, ages, phone numbers and such. I chose to keep in gender and a general diagnosis range with a very brief snapshot of circumstance. “I have a client with Bipolar who could lose their job” is actually a combination of multiple clients–a client, a client with Bipolar, a client who could lose their job. Very quickly, this person started to retweet what I said. Soon, I had hundreds of notifications in just under an hour. I had people telling me I was a horrible person, a horrible therapist, a terrible social worker, etc. Whereas they did not have information to attempt to attack me before, and had to remain quite general in their insults, they had new information thanks to this user. They accused me of HIPAA violations on Twitter, Reddit, and elsewhere. Some of them started to talk of doxxing me, finding out my place of employment, alerting my boss. Even users on their reddit and Twitter who typically support them were saying, “Hey, back off.” This one individual whipped up such a frenzied storm that I had thousands of notifications when I got home. I had threats of doxxing, attacking, and bodily harm to me and others.” – Cainjw I had more notifications in a couple hours than I have followers. All because one person decided to retweet my conversation with them. https://archive.today/t6JSj



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GNAA troll faked superspacedad tweet.

http://archive.today/VWbnt

TotalBiscuit’s mentions after winning “Trending Gamer” award at VGAs.

More hate towards gamers discussing #GamerGate scandal:

https://archive.today/wfAr2

A barely used Twitter account with no #GamerGate activity or followers was hacked, started tweeting vulgar images and remarks. UnseenPerfidy attributes account to #GamerGate and starts insulting/giving threats to various gamers reporting the hacked account.

Some support doxxing as well as searching for & sharing of public contact information of gamers discussing #GamerGate scandal to paint a target on them; not just reporting through proper channels. They use their subjective determination of whether you’re guilty of something and deserving of whatever potentially lethal ramifications come of it (i.e. swatting):

People attempt to implicate gamers discussing #GamerGate by creating false accounts on imageboards like 8chan:

Many gamers feel so threatened by the harassment that they’ve received, that they refuse to publicly discuss it: