Inside Gamergate’s (successful) attack on the media

Thursday, October 23rd, 2014

Caitlin Dewey of the Washington Post looks inside Gamergate’s (successful) attack on the media:

It’s about fighting what they see as a massive, progressive conspiracy among female game developers, feminists and sympathetic, left-leaning media outlets, all of whom are purportedly bent on the destruction of the traditional “gamer” lifestyle.

[...]

The attack strategy is two-part: first, boycott the sites in question; second, pressure their advertisers to do the same.

The “operation,” as organizers have dubbed it, is called Disrespectful Nod, and it’s steadily picked up steam since it launched quietly in early September. According to the group’s records, half a dozen advertisers — including significant international companies, such as Unilever and Scottrade — have been persuaded to drop major media buys within the past six weeks.

[...]

But the incident still demonstrates a worrying new trend among the Gamergate crowd: curbing the speech of reporters they don’t like by threatening their advertisers. For a media empire, such as Gawker, of course, one advertiser won’t necessarily make or break operations. But for targeted sites like Gamasutra, a smaller, gaming industry news site, or Gameranx, a five-person operation, targeting advertisers isn’t just a form of protest: It’s a threat to their very existence.

Now, where have we seen these tactics used before?

Comments

  1. Toddy Cat says:

    It’s remarkable how all those lefties who were screaming that the whole “Duck Dynasty” thing was not about free speech because boycotts are all about free consumer choice have suddenly changed their tune now that they are on the receiving end. Of course, this shouldn’t be surprising — for the left, it’s always about “Who, Whom?” Anyone who thinks that these people have any actual principles is mad — it’s all about winning.

    Almost alone among righties, the guys at Gamergate seem to understand this, along with the NRA.

  2. CMOT says:

    You may remember Caitlin from such hits as Inside the ‘manosphere’ that inspired Santa Barbara shooter Elliot Rodger, where she managed to get just about every verifiable fact wrong.

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