“Gamergate,” considered by many a watershed event in the ascendancy of extremist personalities and tactics to online prominence, was a coordinated social media harassment campaign that targeted women in and associated with the video game industry, primarily in 2014 and 2015. This escalating pattern of mob attacks and abuse went on, targeting multiple individuals, for more than a year. Gamergate is regarded as emblematic of the deeply rooted sexist and reactionary attitudes observed not only in the male-dominated gaming industry of that time, but across the internet at large. Gamergate laid the groundwork, and in many ways set the tone, for that fanatical movement. Misogyny and anti-feminism are nothing new, but thanks (at least in part) to Gamergate these attitudes gained a purchase on social media that women who work and seek community online — particularly in news media — are still forced to reckon with.

Source: Washington Post April 04, 2022 17:28 UTC