Zoë Quinn (1987–)

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3014436.html

This is a crucial book, a finalist for this year's Hugo in the Best Related Work category; its author was the first victim of the appalling #Gamergate affair, in which the forces of the dark side of the Internet were unleashed upon her for supposedly securing a positive review of a game she had written by having sex with the journalist (who in fact did not write or publish any such review). Being white, male and cishet, I've faced very little of show more this myself. (There was one Brexiter who argued with me on Facebook and eventually resorted to sending me obscene messages from sockpuppet accounts and emailing cartooney threats of legal action when I gave him the silent treatment, but at least he involved only his imaginary friends rather than any real ones.) I've seen quite enough of it both online and offline, though; it's very chilling indeed to read what it's like to be at ground zero of one of the Internet's most notorious and vicious attacks. (And I am not interested in hearing from any Gamergate supporters who do not start their contribution by admitting that Gamergate's treatment of Zoe Quinn was inexcusably evil.)

Zoe Quinn also writes about what can be done to fix the problem. It's clearly been a very wearing and learning political process for her and her allies. She has tried to take the issue to the US government, the UN, the titans of the private sector; she has set up her own organisation to help people mitigate similar situations when it happens to them. Good for her to take this dreadful experience and turn it into something positive.

The other point I took from it is that it doesn't cost you to be nice. The waves of harassment diminished every time a celebrity spoke in public against Gamergate. Even on the micro-level, if we see an internet pile-on among our own social circles, it costs nothing to say "this isn't cool" - particularly if the object of the pile-on is not white, male and cishet. Often the harassers are motivated by the low-hanging fruit of an easy target. Telling our friends to calm down can sometimes make the world a better place.

The book is only distantly related to sf literature, but games are definitely part of the genre (so far not much recognised by the Hugos) and as Gamergate fed into the Puppies, it became relevant to the wider discourse around the Hugos themselves. So I have no hesitation in finding this a suitable candidate for Best Related Work, and of the three finalists I've read so far, it's getting my top vote. show less

This is an important book.

Quinn has managed, in relatively few pages, to provide
- a horrifying account of the impact one person made on her life
- the snowball effect of Gamergate
- a memoir of sorts of a self-described geek who isn't comfortable with the spotlight
- some thought-provoking thoughts on harassment from both sides of the fence
- some tips and best practices if this happens to you, as well as how to help prevent it
- a call to arms for those in power to fucking do something about show more it, aside from a shrug of the shoulders

It's a heartbreaking, funny, horrifying, and ultimately sobering look into one person's life that was very nearly destroyed by the caustic actions of cowards who hide behind keyboards and screens.

And a very special message for those of you who are slamming this book:
You are the trolls that she speaks of in this book you label as "badly-written" or "full of lies." That's fine. Maybe the truth is stretched. Maybe the writing isn't Pulitzer-worthy...

Or maybe you're pissed that someone was able to dig themselves out from under the mountain of shit that was piled on her and find a way to, if not stop you, at least stick it to you once in a while.

Others have castigated Quinn for naming the man that authored the manifesto that launched the ensuing attacks against her. They claim that she's speaking up against bullying, yet names the person so that they can be bullied. I say, has she not the right to defend herself? Has she not the right to name her harasser? He sure as hell named her.

This book is terrifying, because of the abuse it details, because of the lack of support from legal authorities, and social media owners, and because I wonder how many of us could have weathered a storm of this magnitude.

Quinn may not have been ready for the spotlight, but she's using her time in the light to shine it on some dark corners that need to be revealed. show less

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 show more 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. show less

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 show more 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. show less