Zoë Quinn (1987–)

I was expecting more of a memoir out of this, but pleasantly, Crash Override analyzes and offers suggestions of how to fight the internet hate machine. Quinn is also aware that POC and trans people have long gotten attacked in this fashion before she has, and uplifts by ceding the 'mic' to marginalized voices on experiences & the importance of community. Her organization, Crash Override Network (named in reference to the Hackers movie) provides support work for internet abuse victims, and helps with documentation, filing reports on the myriad of websites abusers use, etc.

Quick read. At a little over 200 pages, it's not a comprehensive analysis of every single thing that happened (and I'd guess other writers will document that at some point), but it's a great overview & more importantly, a toolbook to use in this current era of fake news and twitterbots.… (more)

I wasn’t sure I wanted to read this as I thought it would be rather depressing, but I’m glad I checked it out. Internet abuse is a horrible thing to read about, and some really rotten things happened to Quinn, but I liked how she dedicated a large chunk of her book to prevention and suggestions of what to do if it happens to you. I really appreciate her repeated points that internet abuse is never OK, even toward the “deserving,” like the abusers themselves, and that she called herself out on past abusive behavior of her own.
Her tips on how to support someone who has been the recipient of abuse were helpful and not always obvious, like not sharing anything without consent, even if it’s to share something that happened in order to express outrage. Another connected point was about how you inadvertently help spread toxic stuff by clicking on links to see what’s being said by abusers. Having just done some reading for a class on search engine optimization, this rang true. By linking to abusive content or following links, we’re adding to the “legitimacy” attributed to them by page ranking algorithms.
The author emphasized that giving unsolicited advice or pressure about how to handle abuse is not as effective as offering support, listening, and pointing to the positive things they do instead of just this horrible thing that happened to them. Not defining people by the abuse they’ve endured is an important piece.
I like how Quinn took a seemingly insurmountable problem and didn’t stop at helping herself but contributed considerably to the fight against the larger problem to help others too.
Although she was pretty good about defining her jargon, I think the book would have benefited from a glossary of terms. I had to stop a few times and look things up.
A valuable read, whether or not you’re an internet whiz kid, actually probably more so if you’re not.… (more)

Hell this books gets depressing AF. Because you realize that nothing has ended or subsided. Because as she says, the reality is that the internet can never be a better place than the people who inhabit it. And the people who inhabit it are the ones who elected Trump, who voted for the Brexit, who put many major Nazi parties in many European countries' parliaments but cry that our main problem is political correctness and sjws.
I like her voice. I always followed the gamer-gate debacle from the very beginning and was pretty invested in it for a couple of years. Writing feminist posts, creating podcasts raising awareness, trying to exist in online gaming spaces without being harassed -and failing at it, reading the stories of all these women being abused and nothing being done about it.
And then, some time passed and I saw them creating again and I thought things were better for them, and I enjoyed the things they were creating thinking, hoping, that at least the relentless abuse they suffered daily had finally ended.
SIGH
Welp I sure am naive.
I love and admire what Zoe has achieved, what she still achieves. I am in awe of her kindness and her strength in being able to write this, to create Crash Override, to help so many others. I am so sad that those misogynistic nerds managed to ruin her life and cause her so much damage and I’m grateful I got to read this book. I hope many people do. I hope they get disturbed enough to realize that we need to try and fix this.
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