There Is No Bottom To The Barrel

Nearly four months ago, the #GamerGate hashtag was born in response to the perception of impropriety between a video game journalist and video game developer. It was the catalyst that ignited a consumer revolt that’s been years in the making. In these past months, #GamerGate has been directly responsible for changes to ethics policies on gaming websites, changes to federal regulations related to affiliate disclosure, and the creation of new alternatives to mainstream gaming news and opinion sites. All in all, it has been reasonably effective in achieving its goals.

It has not done so without its share of controversy, however. Among the many reasons #GamerGate continues to exist today is the general disdain for gamers and “gamer culture” that has taken root in the games journalism sphere over the last few years thanks in no small part to a very vocal subset of the modern feminist movement. These people are known for enacting their own brand of “social justice” upon Internet denizens with whom they are ideologically opposed. This can take the form of simply leaving offensive or hostile comments on social media, slander, public shaming, targeted harassment, threats of harm or death, making private information public (doxing), swatting, and even trying to get people fired from their jobs.

Because of its opposition to political agendas that have been creeping into game reviews and editorials, as well as the aforementioned game developer’s affiliations, #GamerGate has been on the receiving end of every one of these tactics. Even neutrals have been targeted for not choosing a side. Despite all of its attempts, though, “social justice” advocates have not been able to stop #GamerGate from pursuing the ethical reforms it desires.

Containment

Knowing that stopping an amorphous, mostly anonymous revolt is about as likely as herding cats, those opposed to reform decided that their goal would be containment instead. It started with reporting the most vocal protesters on Twitter in an effort to silence and fracture the revolt. When that didn’t work, a more organized effort in the form of the WAM Reporting Tool was used to fast-track the removing of #GamerGate from Twitter. That, too, failed.

Their latest attempt at containment was weeks of pressuring Patreon, a funding site for artists and entrepreneurs, to shut down payment to 8chan, an anonymous message board which is used by some of #GamerGate. In this, they were partially successful in that they were able to force Patreon to change their terms of service. Their issue with 8chan was ostensibly that it hosts child pornography (a violation of 8chan’s rules), and that Patreon should not be affiliated with sites like this. In actuality, it was an attempt to shut down one of the few sites that allows #GamerGate to speak freely on the web.

Desperation

In what can only be seen as a desperate and clumsy attempt at a coup de grâce, Dan Olsen published a hit piece on Medium illustrating how he was able to upload child pornography to 8chan and how slow moderators were to remove it. Nevermind that every website on the planet that allows user-submitted content suffers from this problem (including 8chan’s competitor, 4chan), or that administration never received an email reporting the illegal content before the article was published, this represents a new low by those who oppose #GamerGate.

One would hope that most people are intelligent enough to see through the thin veneer of faux sincerity offered up on Twitter by these overzealous social justice types in their condemnation. It ranges from contrived to outright comical. Rather than blocking or muting those with whom they disagree or find offensive, they continue to find more disgusting ways to bully #GamerGate into submission.

Conclusion

Child pornography is vile. Moreover, it is illegal. Exploiting children to further your petty agenda makes you look desperate and shameless. Attempting to dishonestly link this filth to those with whom you dislike in an effort to tarnish their name represents a new low for opponents of #GamerGate, and shows that there’s truly no low to which they will not sink. If you see child pornography anywhere, report it to NCMEC, not to Patreon or your audience on Twitter.