Gamergate and the New Horde of Digital Saboteurs

Whether the crux of Gamergate is ethics in video game journalism or misogyny among gamers continues to spark heated debate online. But there's no denying the pressing security risk that befalls anyone daring to loudly question the motives of its backers.

In addition to the vile language and sexism that characterized this three-month-plus online slugfest, it has also led to criminal hacks, online threats of violence, and digital smear campaigns. In one prominent case, an independent video game company’s website was hacked, with sensitive financial data spread across the Web. Even more troubling, three women in the game industry fled their homes after critics revealed their addresses along with warnings of violence.

It’s a new kind of digital nightmare, where anyone with an axe to grind and a big enough online megaphone can mobilize thousands of people, mostly anonymous, to use an arsenal of digital weapons to wage war on opponents.

In the case of Gamergate, the threats have typically been aimed at women in gaming and the people who support them. Their tactics have included “doxing” victims, which refers to the act of gathering a trove of private information and spreading it around the Web. And the favorite venue for the aggressors’ to organize are places such as 4chan and Reddit, less so on YouTube, Tumblr, and Twitter. They have no online preference when it comes to where they spread their vitriol.

These digital frontal assaults have “become expected in [any] online tussle,” says Jamie Bartlett, director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think tank Demos in London. "It's almost like, the standard set of itinerary that everyone uses.”

One person will find the home address, he says, and another will then try to “one-up them” by finding more sensitive information. “The herd mentality kicks in and the victim becomes nothing but an object of strange competitive urges.”