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July 19, 2015 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
06:41
What Has #GamerGate Accomplished？ (Guest video by @theLeoPirate)
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I thought we should all take a moment to reflect on how this little hashtag broke the internet.
Aside from generating over 7 million tweets from thousands of people all around the world.
Of the Gamergate movement.
Reportedly, there are several tiers to Gamergate.
He's anti-Gamergate?
He's pro-Gamergate?
Maybe he just doesn't know what it is, doesn't give a fuck, you know what I'm saying?
And it even got its own Law & Order SVU episode.
And you better believe that it's so bad, it's good.
Go home, gamer girl.
These guys, they just can't stand women in gaming.
People often ask me, what does Gamergate accomplish?
So many times that I decided to make this video summing it all up because, well, there's a lot.
Even though no news outlet will ever admit it, GG has forever changed the discussion of online journalism.
But as I always say, actions speak louder than words.
Let's list off some of these accomplishments, or as I like to call them, inconvenient facts the news will never talk about.
First off, Kotaku and Polygon both updated their public ethics policy to enforce Patreon disclosure.
This means if a writer is financially supporting someone they cover, they have to disclose that in their article.
Eurogamer, IGN, GamerRanks, and PC Gamer also updated their ethics policy as a direct response to feedback from Gamergate.
People in Gamergate actually contacted the FTC, yeah, the Federal Trade Commission, to address and enforce their affiliate disclosure policy.
Native advertising is basically saying to corporations that want to advertise, we will camouflage your ads to make them look like news stories.
That's essentially it.
That's essentially it.
Because of this, sites like The Verge and Kotaku now need to add disclosure to articles that are really giant fucking advertisements in disguise.
And yes, according to the response from the FTC, Gamergate is directly responsible for this.
You're welcome.
On top of encouraging ethical disclosure, people have also been boycotting the advertisers of corrupt sites like Gawker and The Verge.
Once people found their sponsor page and started sending emails, advertisers started dropping like flies.
Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Olympus, Nissan, Kellogg's, EA, GM, Dyson, Colgate, Adobe, Discover, and many others all announced they're no longer advertising with Gawker.
It has also cost Gawker Media at least a million dollars, by their own admission.
It apparently got so bad that Gawker had to hide their sponsor page.
I think that speaks for itself.
So getting sites to update their ethics policy and getting advertisers to pull from corrupt sites is great and all, but what about the journalists themselves?
There's GamerGate.me, which hosts the wiki, allowing you to read all the details about journalists' involvement with GG.
There's also DeepFreeze.it, which is essentially a giant database that ranks journalists based on their unethical actions.
You can even read about how Ben Cucera tried to get someone fired from their job for disagreeing with him on Twitter.
Also, Deep Freeze's logo is freaking awesome.
Just look at that thing, that cool square.
People are quick to say Gamergate has become a media watchdog group, and for the most part it has.
But don't forget how many charities and fundraisers people have also supported.
UNICEF, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Center for National Bullying Prevention, and of course, the Fine Young Capitalists.
They made a fundraiser to help women make video games.
This is the same fundraiser that a certain indie dev bragged about sabotaging on Twitter because it was in direct competition with their own game jam.
If you're wondering why I'm not saying their name, it's because I'm told even saying this person's name is considered harassment.
But long story short, the basement dwelling misogyners of Gamergate raised money to help women make video games.
I can't make this up.
But of course, you'll never hear about any of this in the news.
Now, if you're one of those people watching that thinks all of Gamergate is toxic and everyone who uses the hashtag should be executed, that's perfectly fine.
You're allowed to think that.
Just please, please don't send death threats to Gamergate supporters.
Please don't dox them and try to get them fired from their jobs.
Please don't send them knives and syringes.
Please don't vandalize public property.
And please, don't send bomb threats that force hundreds of people to evacuate a meetup in Washington, D.C. Please, don't do any of those things.
Oh my god, JC, a bomb!
A bomb!
It's remote controlled!
Hold on!
Get out of there!
But what's interesting is if you do choose to harass Gamergate supporters, no news outlet will report on it.
Seriously, sites like The Guardian and BuzzFeed make money off of lying about Gamergate, so they definitely won't be writing articles about the horrible things you're doing.
But then I'm sure you'll say, Leo, I don't even read garbage like BuzzFeed.
I heard Gamergate is bad from sites like Reddit.
Well, funny thing about that, based on a leaked chat log from moderators of our gaming, it seems they've been shadow banning anyone that paints Gamergate in a positive light.
They also talk about making fake accounts to post racist stuff, and they even brag about doxing users.
Yeah, in case you can't tell, Reddit is fucking awful.
Stop visiting it.
Like, now.
Here's something else to think about.
In the regular expression the Reddit mods use to censor Gamergate, they included terms like corruption.
You know, food for thought.
But yeah, seriously, stop visiting Reddit.
If you know anyone who does, tell them to stop.
There are way better alternatives out there.
So it's been a crazy 11-month ride, but there are no breaks on this train.
None at all.
It won't end because Gamergate is more than just a hashtag now.
To be against Gamergate is to be against the voice of consumers.
And even though Gigi will never get the recognition it deserves, actions speak louder than words.
Let's keep exposing corruption and conflicts of interest.
And just as WikiLeaks said, let's go to the top.
Because if you find anything, you'll know where to post it.
When you're mine up, lighting up the beauty to be high.
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