Founder Of Gamergate Subreddit r/KotakuInAction Calls It A 'Cancerous Growth,' Attempts To Delete It
On Friday morning, Reddit user david-me, who started r/KotakuInAction, had a stunning change of heart. Posting to the r/Drama subreddit this morning, the founder of the subreddit largely responsible for Gamergate's targeted harassment of underrepresented groups in both the video game industry and its culture acknowledged the damage his subreddit has done.
In his sprawling note, david-me chronicles the progression of KotakuInAction from a subreddit he never really thought would take off, to struggling to enforce ever-shifting posting guidelines, to eventually being overwhelmed as the subreddit was eventually co-opted by hate groups. Here's his full post:
Reportedly, this morning david-me tried to remove the subreddit from the website by turning it to private and removing all of the moderators. According to a post on KotakuInAction, a Reddit admin stepped in and partially restored the subreddit — a particularly odd move considering just days ago Reddit CEO Steve Huffman informed a Reddit user that "they are not the thought police" in response to concerns over a lack of adequately moderating hate speech on the website. Huffman's stance is that Reddit shouldn't police hate speech because it's "impossible to enforce consistently." How Huffman interprets his website preventing a subreddit founder from attempting to close down his subreddit due to the level of hate speech it's produced remains to be seen.
What's more, david-me's attempt to shut down KotakuInAction comes at a particularly charged time in the gaming industry, as last week "Guild Wars II" developer ArenaNet fired two employees in response to an online mob demanding the developer do something after a popular Twitch streamer gave an ArenaNet developer some unsolicited feedback on her personal Twitter account.
The Verge's Megan Farokmanesh spoke with a number of ArenaNet developers in the aftermath of the firings and found that most are worried this sets a dangerous precedent for how video game companies interact and respond to criticism from fans.
The aftermath of ArenaNet's actions has rippled across the gaming industry, both at the company and within the development community at large. Internally, multiple developers at ArenaNet tell The Verge that they felt let down by their employer, who, they say, walked back their branding about inclusion and standing against harassment, and caved to the whims of an internet mob. They describe a chilling effect in their place of work, a frustration and fear shared by many other professionals who make games. Toxic sectors of the gaming community have crowed about the firings as a triumph and a demonstration of their power to control and punish the people who make the games they love.
If anything, david-me's attempt to shut down KotakuInAction and subsequent mea culpa post is a prominent admission from one of Gamergate's own that the movement was started on loose-but-outwardly-justifiable grounds — "It's about ethics in games journalism!" — but quickly co-opted by hate groups to mask targeting harassment of underrepresented groups. As evidenced by the fallout of the ArenaNet firings, it's a strategy that continues years after most assumed Gamergate to be lone gone.
