Five years ago, a
series of vile events changed
the way we fight online.

Opinion

Everything Is Gamergate

On August 15, 2014, an angry 20-something ex-boyfriend published a 9,425-word screed and set in motion a series of vile events that changed the way we fight online. The post, which exhaustively documented the last weeks of his breakup with the video game designer Zoë Quinn, was annotated and punctuated with screenshots of their private digital correspondence — emails, Facebook messages and texts detailing fights and rehashing sexual histories. It was a manic, all-caps rant made to go viral.

And it did. The ex-boyfriend’s claims were picked up by users on Reddit and 4chan and the abuse began. Ms. Quinn and her immediate family members were threatened. Her private information was exposed, including old nude photos from a past relationship. Chat rooms popped up to discuss the best ways to “ruin her life” and fantasize about elaborate ways of killing her.

Opinion

Everything Is Gamergate

Five years ago, a
series of vile events changed
the way we fight online.

In 2013, a series of disinformation campaigns were spread on Twitter, primarily targeting black women. The manipulation tactics developed during these campaigns served as a blueprint for future movements like Gamergate and continue to be shared across anonymous message boards and far-right blogs, shaping the online world. If social media platforms and owners of message boards had responded differently to the 2013 campaigns, their actions could probably have prevented Gamergate and we would be living in a very different world today.

It all began with hashtags.

On the night of Aug. 15, 2014, Zoë Quinn was out having a drink with some friends in San Francisco when her phone began to blow up with messages. Something was exploding on the internet — a strange, incoherent maelstrom of outrage that would take over her life. Ms. Quinn, a 27-year-old video game developer, lived in Boston and was in San Francisco only to visit, but the visit turned into exile.

“I never went home from San Francisco,” she told me.

Interactive IllustrationAdam Ferriss Story IllustrationDelcan & Company EditorsSusan Rigetti and Max Strasser

AuthorsBrianna Wu, Charlie Warzel, Joan Donovan, and Sarah Jeong ProducersFrank Augugliaro, Jessia Ma, Kate Elazegui, and Nicholas Konrad