Zoe Quinn is a game developer who has been the target of continual harassment. In August 2014, Eron Gjoni, an ex-boyfriend of Quinn's, enacted revenge on her for dumping him by publishing a blog[1] consisting of extensive allegations about Quinn's sex life, as well as unsubstantiated accusations that she achieved her status in the industry by sleeping with colleagues. Gjoni himself acknowledges the role of 4chan in proxy recruitment for further harassment of Quinn.
In a Pastebin snippet titled "I will not negotiate with terrorists"[2], Quinn wrote:
(...) What I am going to say is that the proliferation of nude pictures of me, death threats, vandalization, doxxing of my trans friends for having the audacity to converse with me publicly, harassment of friends and family and my friends’ family, sending my home address around, rape threats, memes about me being a whore, pressures to kill myself, slurs of every variety, debates over what my genitals smell like, vultures trying to make money off of youtube videos about it, all of these things are inexcusable and will continue to happen to women in games until this culture changes. (...)
Gjoni's blog posts set off a massive campaign of harassment and abuse against Quinn that spread to target many other women who make or critique games as well, and is ongoing. In an October 16, 2014 interview with Buzzfeed, Gjoni told[3] writer Joseph Bernstein that he regretted the harassment, but would have done the same thing again knowing what he knows now.
In Joanna Russ's taxonomy, the attack against Quinn is an example of a "pollution of agency" attack.
