Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin - What Has #GamerGate Accomplished？ (Guest video by @theLeoPirate)
Aired: 2015-07-19
Duration: 06:41


=== Gawker's Million Dollar Price Tag (03:43) ===

[00:00:24]  I thought we should all take a moment to reflect on how this little hashtag broke the internet.
[00:00:29]  Aside from generating over 7 million tweets from thousands of people all around the world.
[00:00:34]  Of the Gamergate movement.
[00:00:36]  Reportedly, there are several tiers to Gamergate.
[00:00:39]  He's anti-Gamergate?
[00:00:40]  He's pro-Gamergate?
[00:00:41]  Maybe he just doesn't know what it is, doesn't give a fuck, you know what I'm saying?
[00:00:44]  And it even got its own Law & Order SVU episode.
[00:00:47]  And you better believe that it's so bad, it's good.
[00:00:50]  Go home, gamer girl.
[00:00:53]  These guys, they just can't stand women in gaming.
[00:01:02]  People often ask me, what does Gamergate accomplish?
[00:01:05]  So many times that I decided to make this video summing it all up because, well, there's a lot.
[00:01:10]  Even though no news outlet will ever admit it, GG has forever changed the discussion of online journalism.
[00:01:16]  But as I always say, actions speak louder than words.
[00:01:19]  Let's list off some of these accomplishments, or as I like to call them, inconvenient facts the news will never talk about.
[00:01:26]  First off, Kotaku and Polygon both updated their public ethics policy to enforce Patreon disclosure.
[00:01:31]  This means if a writer is financially supporting someone they cover, they have to disclose that in their article.
[00:01:36]  Eurogamer, IGN, GamerRanks, and PC Gamer also updated their ethics policy as a direct response to feedback from Gamergate.
[00:01:44]  People in Gamergate actually contacted the FTC, yeah, the Federal Trade Commission, to address and enforce their affiliate disclosure policy.
[00:01:52]  Native advertising is basically saying to corporations that want to advertise, we will camouflage your ads to make them look like news stories.
[00:02:01]  That's essentially it.
[00:02:03]  That's essentially it.
[00:02:05]  Because of this, sites like The Verge and Kotaku now need to add disclosure to articles that are really giant fucking advertisements in disguise.
[00:02:13]  And yes, according to the response from the FTC, Gamergate is directly responsible for this.
[00:02:19]  You're welcome.
[00:02:20]  On top of encouraging ethical disclosure, people have also been boycotting the advertisers of corrupt sites like Gawker and The Verge.
[00:02:26]  Once people found their sponsor page and started sending emails, advertisers started dropping like flies.
[00:02:31]  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.
[00:02:46]  It has also cost Gawker Media at least a million dollars, by their own admission.
[00:02:50]  It apparently got so bad that Gawker had to hide their sponsor page.
[00:02:54]  I think that speaks for itself.
[00:02:56]  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?
[00:03:03]  There's GamerGate.me, which hosts the wiki, allowing you to read all the details about journalists' involvement with GG.
[00:03:09]  There's also DeepFreeze.it, which is essentially a giant database that ranks journalists based on their unethical actions.
[00:03:15]  You can even read about how Ben Cucera tried to get someone fired from their job for disagreeing with him on Twitter.
[00:03:20]  Also, Deep Freeze's logo is freaking awesome.
[00:03:23]  Just look at that thing, that cool square.
[00:03:50]  People are quick to say Gamergate has become a media watchdog group, and for the most part it has.

=== Please Don't Send Death Threats (02:47) ===

[00:03:55]  But don't forget how many charities and fundraisers people have also supported.
[00:03:59]  UNICEF, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Center for National Bullying Prevention, and of course, the Fine Young Capitalists.
[00:04:06]  They made a fundraiser to help women make video games.
[00:04:08]  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.
[00:04:16]  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.
[00:04:22]  But long story short, the basement dwelling misogyners of Gamergate raised money to help women make video games.
[00:04:28]  I can't make this up.
[00:04:30]  But of course, you'll never hear about any of this in the news.
[00:04:32]  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.
[00:04:40]  You're allowed to think that.
[00:04:41]  Just please, please don't send death threats to Gamergate supporters.
[00:04:46]  Please don't dox them and try to get them fired from their jobs.
[00:04:49]  Please don't send them knives and syringes.
[00:04:52]  Please don't vandalize public property.
[00:04:54]  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.
[00:05:03]  Oh my god, JC, a bomb!
[00:05:05]  A bomb!
[00:05:06]  It's remote controlled!
[00:05:07]  Hold on!
[00:05:08]  Get out of there!
[00:05:09]  But what's interesting is if you do choose to harass Gamergate supporters, no news outlet will report on it.
[00:05:14]  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.
[00:05:23]  But then I'm sure you'll say, Leo, I don't even read garbage like BuzzFeed.
[00:05:26]  I heard Gamergate is bad from sites like Reddit.
[00:05:29]  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.
[00:05:38]  They also talk about making fake accounts to post racist stuff, and they even brag about doxing users.
[00:05:43]  Yeah, in case you can't tell, Reddit is fucking awful.
[00:05:45]  Stop visiting it.
[00:05:46]  Like, now.
[00:05:48]  Here's something else to think about.
[00:05:49]  In the regular expression the Reddit mods use to censor Gamergate, they included terms like corruption.
[00:05:55]  You know, food for thought.
[00:05:56]  But yeah, seriously, stop visiting Reddit.
[00:05:58]  If you know anyone who does, tell them to stop.
[00:06:00]  There are way better alternatives out there.
[00:06:02]  So it's been a crazy 11-month ride, but there are no breaks on this train.
[00:06:07]  None at all.
[00:06:08]  It won't end because Gamergate is more than just a hashtag now.
[00:06:11]  To be against Gamergate is to be against the voice of consumers.
[00:06:14]  And even though Gigi will never get the recognition it deserves, actions speak louder than words.
[00:06:19]  Let's keep exposing corruption and conflicts of interest.
[00:06:22]  And just as WikiLeaks said, let's go to the top.
[00:06:24]  Because if you find anything, you'll know where to post it.
[00:06:37]  When you're mine up, lighting up the beauty to be high.