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Government Crime The Internet The Media

Running For Congress, Brianna Wu Criticizes The FBI's GamerGate Report (venturebeat.com) 760

An anonymous reader shares this update about programmer/game developer Brianna Wu as well as the FBI's recently-released report on their GamerGate investigation:Wu has officially unveiled the web site for her campaign for a seat in the U.S. Congress, and says if elected she'll confront the FBI over their "appalling failure" when investigating members of the controversial GamerGate coalition. "Wu catalogued more than 180 death threats that she said she received because she spoke out against sexism in the game industry and #GamerGate misogyny," according to VentureBeat, which quotes Wu as saying "only a fraction of a fraction of the information we gave them was ever looked into."

The article says the FBI did investigate -- even asking Google to "preserve records" for several email addresses and YouTube accounts, and making a similar request to Microsoft. And the FBI also interviewed one minor who admitted to making at least 40 threatening phone calls, but after turning over that information learned that the state of Massachusetts had declined to prosecute. In the end the FBI's 173-page report ultimately concluded that there were no actionable leads.

Wu's response? "All this report does for me is show how little the FBI cared about the investigation."
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Running For Congress, Brianna Wu Criticizes The FBI's GamerGate Report

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  • by ravenshrike ( 808508 ) on Sunday January 29, 2017 @09:44PM (#53762935)

    No, you unimportant half-melted snowflake, the world does not revolve around you and yours.

    • by ArmoredDragon ( 3450605 ) on Sunday January 29, 2017 @10:20PM (#53763125)

      I think the FBI should investigate the times where Wu was caught red handed creating fake accounts to harass himself.

      Besides, even if 10% of the shit claimed by Wu wasn't made up, trolling is hardly worth spending actual money to investigate.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        "Brianna" is nothing more than a professional victim. Seriously, "she" has actually made a living off of Patreon by whining and crying about how much the world doesn't like "her".

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        I think the FBI should investigate the times where Wu was caught red handed creating fake accounts to harass himself.

        Besides, even if 10% of the shit claimed by Wu wasn't made up, trolling is hardly worth spending actual money to investigate.

        Don't worry. AmiMoJo, PopeRatzo and/or Serviscope_minor will be along soon to "explain" and "interpret" the FBI report to fit with their delusions about gamergate. Serviscope_minor might throw his usual moral panic fit because people are thinking the wrong thoughts instead of going with "listen and believe".

        Look for the phrase "this doesn't mean that she wasn't in danger"... or similar god-of-the-gaps arguments.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      We're all at the center of our own world. If you don't realize that, it means you're so egocentric you think your vantage point is special.

      That said, attracting death threats for expressing your opinion is pretty objective evidence that other people find you notable. In fact you may not realize it, but your need to express your hatred of her lends her stature.

      If you want someone to feel insignificant you should ignore them.

      • If you think that my post rises anywhere near the level of hatred you perhaps need to take a remedial English class. Dislike certainly, derision definitely, and I sure as fuck despise the woman's actions. Hatred however is a level of emotional investment I reserve for the truly evil or personal, and she is neither.

        Attracting death threats on the internet merely shows that you are expressing an opinion others dislike and are of a high enough profile or 'lucky' enough to attract them. Given the internet histo

    • by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Sunday January 29, 2017 @10:51PM (#53763271)
      All the rage in politics these days. . Go insane if things don't go your way. Here's the big thing. NO one gives a fuck about "GamerGate" except for the collection of assholes involved in it.

      the reason the FBI didn't go further was because they are not in the business of sucking Social Justice Warrior's dicks.

      • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday January 30, 2017 @04:15AM (#53764417)

        This.

        I actually had to look it up. And I would indeed consider myself an avid gamer. Actually, currently it's likely I spend more time playing games than working (if that's possible). And I haven't heard about it until recently, and I looked it up ... and I don't get it. No, honestly, I don't get it. What the fuck is this about? Someone left someone and now someone wrote an article about a game but didn't report about the game but let his (or her, I don't care) hurt feelings get in the way.

        That's it? For real? That's what people get worked up about?

        Don't get me wrong, of course, losing someone and being hurt matters to the person who it happens to, but why the FUCK should I give half a shit about it? "But journalism and integrity..." BULLSHIT! Does anyone still read "journalist" articles about games? Half of them are paid ads anyway, the other half is worded in a way that reeks worse of copy/paste than the average answer from a tech supporter. If you care for other people's opinions on games, read reviews from other players on Steam.

        Aside of that, PLEASE educate me why this is even a thing? If anything, it reminds me that adding "-gate" to any topic only means "we want to blow this out of proportion or else nobody gives a shit because it's not worth giving one".

        • Does anyone still read "journalist" articles about games? Half of them are paid ads anyway, the other half is worded in a way that reeks worse of copy/paste than the average answer from a tech supporter. If you care for other people's opinions on games, read reviews from other players on Steam.

          That's why it happened in the first place. Because people had enough, and it exploded when the media decided to double down and pull out the "gamers are dead" articles. Then rounded that out with mass censorship on any discussion of it. The comment graveyards on reddit are still around, some are huge 25k+ deleted comments? 5k+ here or there on it? Yep. The gamejournopros leaks. [deepfreeze.it] The "writers" shilling for their friends/buddies shit and not disclosing it? Those same writers being in a gigantic circle jerk of undisclosed payments from various people in the indie industry as well. Keep in mind that this wasn't the start, this had been building since the days of Kane and Lynch and the Dorito Pope.

          The icing on the cake was simply all the bullshit that sites like polygon, kotaku, rps, and so on have tried to push. Things like "GTAV is sexist" or why your vidya makes you a violent killer. Along with the big "vidya is sexist" so we need to create a safe space for the special snowflakes, and you need to give them special concessions because they're special. Which kinda goes against the entire "git gud" line(aka merit is all that matters) that gaming is built around. If anything it's simply exposed that the above mentioned sites are cancerous identity politics engines. And even media like the BBC or NPR have no problems pushing that same line of reasoning as long as it gets them what they want.

          • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday January 30, 2017 @06:37AM (#53764801)

            So ... after not caring about what journalists write and them lashing out, I now should care about them lashing out? Or for not writing anything and "censoring"?

            Again, nobody so far managed to give me any kind of reason, let alone a good one, why I should give a fuck about this whole mess.

            People who know nothing about games write about games to piss off gamers. It's not like this has never happened before, and I somehow wonder why gamers still give a shit. From "Uh, games make people go on killing sprees" to "Uh, games are misogynist".

            Does any "gamer" still give a shit what they say?

            The media have misrepresented games and people who play them for decades now. And suddenly we're supposed to give a shit about what they write? For real?

  • So.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by tsotha ( 720379 ) on Sunday January 29, 2017 @10:03PM (#53763031)

    Nothing actionable? What a shock, I tell you! What a shock!

  • by Noishkel ( 3464121 ) on Sunday January 29, 2017 @10:07PM (#53763061)
    ... would be a better choice than Wu ever could have been. Even if she hadn't got fully blown victim narrative as a way of life.
  • Self sacrifice? (Score:5, Informative)

    by stratzvyda ( 928063 ) on Sunday January 29, 2017 @10:24PM (#53763147)
    Wasn't he caught harassing himself on his own game developer account on steam?
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Same chair and same pockmarks and dirty spots on the walls in his "escaped safehouse" and his original "I had to run away from here because death threats" home as well.

      Not sure if it was on steam or twitter though, for your question. But he DID misappropriate a good chunk of his kickstarter money.

  • If you go to her web page [briannawu2018.com] (which does look rather impressive), it has the imposing slogan, "She Fought the Alt-Right and Won." Did she? Presumably she fought against gamergate (is that the alt-right?), did she win? It seems like the FBI is saying that nothing needed to be done.
    • by 91degrees ( 207121 ) on Monday January 30, 2017 @04:31AM (#53764447) Journal

      Presumably she fought against gamergate (is that the alt-right?),

      Tricky to say. A lot of GG members seem pretty broadly left wing. They dislike the extremists who focus on identity politics though, and are more likely to see Republicans as people with political opinions they strongly disagree with, rather than evil.

      As such it seemed like a reasonable alliance from the point of view of right wingers (including the alt-right) who are staunchly opposed to the identity politics extremists; and they can broadly get on board with a message of "journalistic ethics".

      did she win?

      Also hard to say. A lot of gamergaters say that all they wanted was disclosure of personal interest in articles. In this case GG won, but Wu wasn't opposed to that. I'm not sure what her view of GG's goal was. Presumably to prevent the number of female programmers going up to 8%... Not sure she's won here.

      • by aevan ( 903814 )
        From my experience, gg was somewhat mocked on pol, and 'keep that shit off our board'. Meanwhile gg was 'keep your redpill to yourself'. Some overlap, some spergs, etc. Some felt brethren, some felt the other useful idiots. Fun times.

        A key note would been how there was a point in the autumn where it seemed GG won and journos had new policies up: those in it for 'the right to not be vilified/left alone and get honest reviews' were sated, while another faction went on to now try to crusade in other fiel
  • by CaptainDork ( 3678879 ) on Sunday January 29, 2017 @10:33PM (#53763199)

    ... is another goddam non-politician with an axe to grind.

    Her personal shit is not on my to do list.

  • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Sunday January 29, 2017 @11:07PM (#53763363) Journal

    I wonder where Brianna Wu got the strange notion that an internet troll could run for office and possibly win.

  • It didn't work the first time around for her, it's only going to be worse to think he's any more important by being a Congresscritter.

  • by ezdiy ( 2717051 ) on Sunday January 29, 2017 @11:52PM (#53763603)
    The report quality is adequate to run of the mill federal cases of bomb threats and swatting investigations.

    It is nice to see a nod given to SA in the report (though it does not go into much detail) - goons, true to their name, were the ones often pitting reddit/chans vs wu/sarkeesian against each other (by false flagging both camps) just for the sake of spectacular flamewars such internet cockfights tend to generate.
  • by _KiTA_ ( 241027 ) on Monday January 30, 2017 @12:01AM (#53763627) Homepage

    Some Gamergate threads about it:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotak... [reddit.com]

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotak... [reddit.com]
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotak... [reddit.com]
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotak... [reddit.com]
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotak... [reddit.com]
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotak... [reddit.com]
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotak... [reddit.com]
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotak... [reddit.com]
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotak... [reddit.com]
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotak... [reddit.com]
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotak... [reddit.com]

    The new narrative from the Regressive Left is "Waah, the FBI didn't do enough work to find the harassment we KNOW simply MUST be there."

    The reality is the FBI investigated GamerGate and exonerated us. The harassment was either kids being stupid, obvious 4chan memes, or strangely enough True Blood fans getting pissed.

    Turns out it actually is about ethics in games journalism. (But really is about a Culture War in Gaming that the Left has soundly lost.)

  • Meanwhile... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Z80a ( 971949 ) on Monday January 30, 2017 @12:57AM (#53763873)

    One day of typical work of Roberta Williams was more important for gaming than the whole life of this prick.

    • Re:Meanwhile... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Mashiki ( 184564 ) <mashiki@gmail.cBALDWINom minus author> on Monday January 30, 2017 @01:21AM (#53763949) Homepage

      Funny thing on that. You know that the usual social justice clique likes to scrub her out of history because she likes to make things that cater to her audience. Much like how they like to scrub Mari Shimazaki who was the artist and character designer for so many AAA games, and how she not only likes "sexy female characters" but has no problems designing male ones to pander or give fan service. Or they like to complain about manga's which have a very high level of female storyboard writers or lead-artists/illustrators.

  • by bradley13 ( 1118935 ) on Monday January 30, 2017 @02:01AM (#53764097) Homepage

    "She fought the alt-right and won" - that is apparently her campaign slogan. That would also be news to the alt-right, that (a) didn't exist when GamerGate happened and (b) barely even knows she exists.

    It's like saying: "she beat her fists against a brick wall - left blood flecks everywhere - she must've won".

  • by KalvinB ( 205500 ) on Monday January 30, 2017 @02:27AM (#53764149) Homepage

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    He lost his law license over his stupidity.

    Wu doesn't have anything of value to revoke she's so worthless.

    The FBI probably looked at what was sent to Jack Thompson and what was sent to Wu, had a good laugh and then went home to play Call of Duty.

  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday January 30, 2017 @03:26AM (#53764251)

    Just in case you thought Trump wasn't enough of a show, but THIS should be awesome entertainment.

    I'll stand by with popcorn and coke. I mean, I thought Trump was already gold for satire news shows, but this woman is a platinum encrusted jewel.

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday January 30, 2017 @12:11PM (#53766939)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

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