Slashdot Mirror
Bounties vs. Extreme Internet Harassment
squiggleslash writes Brianna Wu, a game studio owner in Boston, found herself the target of numerous anonymous death threats last month, apparently the escalation of a campaign that started when she spoke up for women in gaming, and that intensified during the GamerGate train wreck. Rather than hide, she's offering an $11,000+ cash reward for anyone who helps put her attacker in jail, and she's reporting — albeit at a time many see GamerGate being in its death throes — that it's already having an effect. Wu is also setting up a legal fund to go after those promoting more extreme libels against her and others, with screenshots of a forged tweet purporting to be written by her still circulating around the Internet.
Another hit-piece that quotes a drama-queen tranny with no critique whatsoever. Woo hoo.
It's sad how easily "children" and "terrorism"^W^W^W "misogyny" and "harassment" became the root passwords to the Constitution^W^W journalistic ethics.
Death threats are illegal, they don't become legal because they're On The Internet any more than an old technology should become patentable because it's done On The Internet.
She isn't demanding that all women on the internet not be degraded online, she's trying to bring criminal charges against people who are sending her death threats.
Says the person that modded me troll and then posted anon. Ironic that you're using the same methods as the people you despise don't you think?
This is the only way to shut this down. Once someone is put in the slammer everyone will realize you cant use Twitter to make death threats. I am glad the FBI is treating this seirously. Had Banksters been threatened in this manner it would have been shut down instantly. It is time to take violence against women seriously.
> Making a credible threat against someone's life ought not to be treated like a prank.
Wake me when that actually happens.
So far, I only see hysterical idiots willing to go on a rampage to create a new class of criminal based on dubious conflations of the ethereal to the real. Trash talk from basement dwelling trolls is getting far too much attention when really it just needs to go straight into the bit bucket.
The only reason it's not is because the targets are shameless attention whores.
Increasing the size of the criminal population should be done with more consideration than any of the "pro crackdown" contingent seem to be interested in.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Hey, I've got a fun fact for you:
Threats aren't protected under any nations' free speech protections. Zero of them.
Having stupid opinions, and insulting people are protected under: a great many.
Whether you pretend there's no difference or not, this is a long-settled question, and you need to grow up.
Except that you're forgetting, there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.
You can make anything you want illegal, but if you can't enforce that law, it's not really a law is it? You can say anything you want on the internet with impunity and no matter how vile or insulting it is, there's nothing anyone can do to stop you.
Moreover, if you don't want people to bring the internet insults into your real life, don't bring your real life onto the internet. This person used her real life persona to wade into this debate and then acted surprised when they got real life harassment. The harassment is not ok, it's not right, but it's the price we have to pay to have a free and open internet.
If someone started screwing with me with my CharlieMopps ID on slashdot in such a way that I found it unbearable, I'd drop the account and come up with a new beer related persona in about 30 seconds. I do have my real name, real self out of the internet as well. Under that name I do not argue hot button issues or otherwise set myself up for trolling because it's a pain in the ass to get a new real name.
If you don't like the way this is, think about what the fix would be. No more anonymity. But hey, that would never get abused right?