According to objective data, #GamerGate is not about journalistic ethics. Colour me surprised
Newsweek had Brandwatch analyze 25% of tweets to the GamerGate hashtag. The social media analytics firm looked at 500,000 tweets, going back to the inception of the hashtag. They found that the vast majority of tweets were directed to female developers and game critics, not journalists:
GamerGaters do tweet a lot at the official Kotaku account—more than any individual journalist or editor. That account has been pummeled with 23,500 tweets since September 1. But that number pales in comparison to the tweets received by Brianna Wu, another female game developer who has spoken out against GamerGate, and Anita Sarkeesian, who has been a vocal critic of sexism in gaming. Sarkeesian has been bombarded with 35,188 tweets since September 1, while Wu has gotten 38,952 in the same time period. Combined, these two women have gotten more tweets on the #GamerGate hashtag than all the games journalists Newsweek looked at combined. And, again, neither of them has committed any supposed “ethics” violations. They’re just women who disagree with #GamerGate.
Let’s break that down visually, so it can really sink in:
Thank you Newsweek, for spelling out so clearly what we already knew. It’s about harassment of women in gaming.
