FBI Releases Gamergate File
The FBI released its file on a series of death threats, bomb reports, and other harassment by people claiming affiliation with Gamergate. The bureau investigated these actions, which targeted two women in the gaming community, between September 2014 and September 2015. The agency eventually called it quits when it failed to uncover any leads on the individuals who had wreaked havoc on these women and the people around them during that period.
Gamergate was nominally focused on ethics in game journalism. Yet the FBI's investigation showed that people who purported involvement with the movement--GamerGators, as one of the emails included in the file said they preferred to be called--were more focused on feminism. The women they targeted, whose identities were redacted from FBI documents but are likely developer Brianna Wu and critic Anita Sarkeesian, were not journalists.
They were, however, outspoken about what they perceived as misogyny in video games. It appears that several GamerGators were not fond of this, as shown by this emailed bomb threat against the Taggart Student Center auditorium at Utah State University, where Sarkeesian was invited to speak:
Other threats are included in the file. The gist is the same--anyone supporting Wu or Sarkeesian would be harmed if they continued to give them a public platform. Supplemental documents also compiled a list of threats or attacks related to Gamergate that don't directly involve Wu or Sarkeesian:
The full report can be found on the FBI's website.
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Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.
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Hurin_ So basically a whole bunch of nothing. The idea that Gamers hate women because reasons never made any sense, and was obviously a smokescreen journalists invented to cover up evidence of their own malfeasance.Reply
Now journalists complain about being called 'fake news', and that people wont believe all their negative stories about Trump. Guess what, credibility is not a boomerang, it will not come back after you trow it away. -
surphninja This is a biased load of crap right here. Is this an opinion piece or a report?Reply
The gamergate community was diverse and not at all centralized. To dismiss the vast majority, that were concerned about ethics in journalism, as secret misogynists because there were trolls that identified themselves part of gamergate is totally dishonest and not anything close to an accurate representation of the events.
Also, your wording seems to imply that everyone involved in gamergate is somehow responsible for these nutcases sending death threats. -
Japanlol That threat you quoted in your article was an attempt by someone to get a GG supporter (Youtuber Mr. Repzion) into trouble. He made a video about it. Look for it - the title is "The FBI Visited Me Today - Anita Sarkeesian Does Not Deserve Threats".Reply
Also 8chan's Baphomet board is not a GG board. It is filled with trolls who attacked people on both sides of the controversy because they wished to cause drama for fun. -
problematiq Really? a DBZ reference? "We have "Over 9000" bombs" that number just makes you shrug the whole thing off.Reply -
Model76 "We have over 9000 bombs" and "You all need a hug, some tea, and maybe a gentle back massage", etc.Reply
This was OBVIOUSLY meant as a joke. The One Who Shall Not Be Named simply chose to not take it as one - because that is exactly how she makes her money: Creating drama. -
dstarr3 Oh Jesus, can we not dig this stuff back up again? I thought it finally was all dead and buried. Let's leave it that way.Reply -
Japanlol 19229481 said:"We have over 9000 bombs" and "You all need a hug, some tea, and maybe a gentle back massage", etc.
This was OBVIOUSLY meant as a joke. The One Who Shall Not Be Named simply chose to not take it as one - because that is exactly how she makes her money: Creating drama.
Not only a joke. An attempt by someone to get a GAMERGATE SUPPORTING Youtuber into trouble.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlmuKqKAIb4
Another threat against Brianna Wu (also mentioned in the docs) came from this guy, a comedian/performance artist who was pretending to be a GGer. It's been common knowledge for a long time, yet the writer doesn't feel the need to mention any of this.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/gamergates-archvillain-is-really-a-trolling-sketch-comedian?utm_term=.caPJno0Bd#.fueE5k8oQ
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koss64 So the point of this article is to say that the FBI cant find a few deranged commenters and reprobates on the public,traceable internet? So the moral of the story is what make all the threats you want on any public forum and once you use a modicum of covering your tracks the FBI wont be bothered to find and charge you?Reply -
jstrayer If gamergate was about ethics in Journalism then why were only female non-journalists targeted?Reply -
bit_user
No, the amount of effort (or lack, thereof) probably had more to do with the lack of any physical violence or injury.19230171 said:So the point of this article is to say that the FBI cant find a few deranged commenters and reprobates on the public,traceable internet? So the moral of the story is what make all the threats you want on any public forum and once you use a modicum of covering your tracks the FBI wont be bothered to find and charge you?
With the number of murders in this country, the amount of fraud, and now hackers blackmailing and extorting people, the FBI obviously has bigger fish to fry.
So, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I think it would be naive to draw any conclusions about their investigative capabilities, from this incident.