TRIGGER WARNING This article or section, or pages it links to, contains information about sexual assault and/or violence which may be triggering to survivors.

Overview

Kathy Sierra used to have a technology blog, Creating Passionate Users. In March 2007 she announced that she was cancelling her appearance at O'Reilly ETech. Sierra had been regularly criticised on websites including meankids.org on technical matters. At some point at least one anonymous poster escalated the criticism and expressed their desire for Sierra's death, together with an image of her with a noose. The same poster had made violent sexual suggestions about her. Sierra explained that the threats had terrified her.

The incident sparked a significant amount of discussion around cyberbullying and harassment issues especially around the issue of weblogs not allowing hostile environments to arise in their comment sections.

A 2008 New York Times article identified weev as contributing to the harassment of Sierra, including publishing her home address and social security number, together with publishing fictional abuse allegations concentrating on Sierra's daughters.

References

Sierra's original revelation of the threats is no longer available. Some quotes are available on Making Light. See also, the wayback machine.

Responses

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