GamerGate’s war against Ghostbusters and Leslie Jones ((African-American group post)) [View all]
http://www.amalanetwork.com/2016/07/19/gamergates-war-against-ghostbusters-and-leslie-jones/
The question Jack Dorsey needs to ask himself is why he allows people like Milo Yiannopoulos to continually pollute his service. Milos had his account suspended on more than one occasion, and his role as conductor of multiple harassment campaigns resulted in having his cherished Blue Checkmark of Verification revoked. Theres no doubt that the only reason he works at Breitbart is because nobody else wants a libelous bigot in their organization and the white supremacist news sites dont make enough money to put him on the payroll.
Removing a wannabe fascist like Milo would be a welcomed step towards reducing the instantaneous maelstrom of bile that so often occurs on Twitter; it would send a message that Twitter is actually serious about protecting its users, and deter the countless other bigoted windbags that strive to reach Milos level. Theres even the possibility that Milos removal from the service could see a boycott by thousands of mangry grown adults who truly believe a good way to spend their time on this planet is yelling at women for liking a Ghostbusters reboot.
What we also need to ask ourselves is how accepting weve been of behavior like Milos in our complacency and inattentiveness. Because, as many others will tell you, Leslies experience isnt singular. Its just well known. Any person of color, any woman can be subjected to this kind of abhorrent abuse without a moments noticewith nobody reaching out or writing an article at Buzzfeed. Even white men can endure certain levels of similar abuse should they dare to say anything that pisses off GamerGaters, alt-righters, 4channers, while supremacists, or someone overly defensive of the status quo (though its difficult to see a difference between any of those groups). And yes, sometimes people considered more progressive will take part in large, disorganized abuse, in case you were already saying, But what about in your head.
Because while we like to focus on the top brass of websites for not doing enough, we also need to focus on ourselves and the online culture we tolerate so long as it doesnt affect us. Leslie received no shortage of replies from people telling her to just ignore the hate.
That doesnt work. It never has, it never will.
(warning, lots of screencaps of horrendous racist shit at the link)