Demonstrating the keen grasp of ethics for which they are so well-known, an assortment of assholes and trolls associated with #GamerGate and 8chan are eagerly sorting through the Ashley Madison data dump in search of people to smear.
The former #GamerGate bigwig formerly known as Internet Aristocrat, now calling himself MisterMetokur, helped to lead the charge on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MisterMetokur/status/633820133065031680
https://twitter.com/MisterMetokur/status/634074455485083648
Naturally, his Tweets on the subject received dozens of likes and retweets from card-carrying, hashtag-using #GamerGaters.
On #GamerGate hub 8chan, meanwhile, the anons of /v/ and /pol/ searched the hacked database for the email addresses of game developers, academics, media professionals, and anyone else they could think of.
Over on Reddit’s KotakuInAction, the regulars rejoiced in the discovery that Gawker writer Sam Biddle, a longtime #GamerGate bete noire, had briefly had an AshleyMadison account, which he (quite plausibly) explained he had used for research.
But not everyone on KiA accepted that explanation:
![g-divA nice grandson 18 points 3 hours ago With some writers, I'd totally believe it. But Sam? Yeah, not for a second. permalinksavereportgive goldreply [–]AntonioOfVeniceRuns /r/polygon Karma King of late April 2015 17 points 3 hours ago Sam Biddle deactivated his account because he didn't need it for an affair. Women are falling over each other to do it with this very attractive man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jtmFlUg56w permalinksaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]EddieDombrowski 8 points 3 hours ago Is that even a man? He looks like a child, how old is he? Acts like one too. permalinksaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]AcherosIs fake journalism [score hidden] an hour ago I can't tell if its the audio quality, or the song over him, or what...But he literally, actually sounds like he is mentally retarded. Like, I'm not even joking or being insulting. in that video, he actually sounds like he has downs syndrome. Guys...What if...What if we've been going after someone with downs syndrome this entire time?](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/biddle.png?resize=513%2C458&ssl=1)
It’s about ethics in using stolen data to humiliate enemies and make Down Syndrome jokes about them.
H/T — @srhbutts
I think they should be more worried about their own. http://gawker.com/family-values-activist-josh-duggar-had-a-paid-ashley-ma-1725132091
On the flipside, looks like Josh Duggar graduated to adult women via Ashley Madison.
Oh, stars above. Nope nope nope. D:
Damn, ninja’d.
Who/what is Ashley Madison?
Somebody/something that can finally land these dipshits behind bars where they belong (note to lurking trolls: Not because I don’t like them, but because they keep breaking the laws of every damn country on Earth), I hope.
Could someone explain what’s going on here? I don’t understand, Gamergaters have a bunch of profile details about some dating website and are looking for people who call GG out on its bullshit on it?
So ethical to go after every bit of dirt on your “opponents” instead of just attacking their arguments.
Nope, they have to somehow go off about how they’re all cheaters, which has no bearing on games or them doing their job as games journalists at all. (And I highly doubt every single GGer has always been faithful to their partners either.)
Ethics!
Ashley Madison is a website that allows married folks (mostly men) to find someone to cheat on their spouses with.
And apparently this is relevant for nothing more than just making every anti-GGer look bad, and this has nothing to do with “ethics in journalism”, more than just making their opponents look bad (and let’s face it, it does, but it has nothing to do with journalism).
Ashley Madison is a dating site specifically for people who are married/in relationships but want to hook up for affairs; hence the blackmail potential.
If I point out I learned that on BBC Radio 4 News today would that sound too much like “er, or at least that’s what I’ve heard”? 🙂
To catch everyone up: Ashley Madison is a dating site that caters specifically to married people, or people in long-term relationships. It’s an affairs matchmaker.
Some time ago, some unknown group of hackers said they’d accessed its servers and downloaded details on all 35 million accounts, including GPS coords, credit card details, emails, etc. They said they’d release the info unless Ashley Madison shut down, accusing it of lying about account security and creating fake women profiles.
One no-shutdown later, here we all are.
OH MY GOD NINJA’D TWICE
NINJAS ONLY ATTACK ONE A TIME, C’MON
@Alan
On Radio FOUR? That seems somewhat unusual but hey, if that’s what you saaaay…
And glad to see Gamergate is still the shining beacon of journalistic integrity that the gaming industry apparently… needs? Do people actually care about games journalism? I know I’ve never paid attention to a single “official” game review in my life.
It’s like that last guy is just on the cusp of reaching the “are we the baddies?” cliff, but he’s so entrenched in the awfulness of GambleGarm that he had to turn around the moment he saw the sign that said, “Moment of Realization Ahead”.
Hmm. So, I thought that “Metokur” might mean something and asked Old Uncle Google, and apparently it does… Perhaps a fuck tonne more than he meant.
@everyone
Ah, thanks. ^^;
THAT’S WHAT WE WANT YOU TO THINK!
At least this could possibly mean that Josh Duggar isn’t molesting kids anymore. Though that’s really only a faint speck of hope since his parents didn’t get him adequate treatment when he was young. So it’s more likely his behavior got more out of control and he’s old enough that it’s much less amenable to change.
@some sort of username
Well, I would like it if more was being done about big-name companies like EA paying big-name reviewers like IGN under the table for perfect tens (I know that sounds like a conspiracy theory, but IGN’s admitted to it), because that shit is tantamount to scamming the people who get duped into buying broken games – but #GamerGate’s openly and proudly for paid
advertisementsreviews of “AAA” shovelware, so they’d fail at their mission statement even if they weren’t just a tulle-thin front for a hate group. =P“I know that sounds like a conspiracy theory, but IGN’s admitted to it”
It does sound like a conspiracy. Where did they admit this?
I’m officially against the hack, but reveling in the Duggar news.
The GGer’s are basically claiming that leftist game journalists are conspiring with indie developers to promote games that “real gamers” don’t like and shove “political correctness” down everyone’s throats. Or at least that’s the closest approximation to a logically coherent position they seem to support.
As satisfying as it is to see assholes get their comeuppance (of COURSE Josh Duggar had an account) this is so super squicky, no different than sharing the stolen celebrity nudes. This is private information that has been stolen. It’s unethical enough to use this information to expose Family Values hypocrites, but game devs? How does that even matter?
There are still GamerGaters? o~0
@ SFHC and SSOU: Ashley Madison is a dating website targeted at people looking to cheat on their SO. I’m sure you can imagine people who use it would prefer people not know about that.
@ Flora
One of the exceptions we have in England in terms of restrictions on the right to privacy is the exposing of hypocrisy or correcting a false narrative.
So theoretically someone who either evangelised against adultery or made a big thing about how they would never cheat wouldn’t necessarily be able to take action against someone who breached their privacy in this way.
However someone who’d never expressed a view on the subject wouldn’t loose their right to privacy just because their conduct, having an affair, might be frowned upon.
Of course, that’s a legal position rather than a consideration of the ethics of the situation.