Utah State University recently confirmed that it had received a terror threat from an anonymous source, promising a “Montreal Massacre-style attack” if feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian were to go through with her talk at the school.
This is the latest in a line of threats made against women in the video game industry: Depression Quest developer Zoe Quinn has been homeless for months and Giant Spacekat head of development Brianna Wu recently publicized a series of Tweets that forced her into hiding.
These death threats appear to have been motivated by #GamerGate, a movement that claims to be about ethics in video game journalism but has become famous for some of its more vocal supporters engaging in reprehensible misogynistic behavior. The FBI is currently investigating the recent threats made against Sarkeesian.
There is currently no word as to whether the speech will proceed as planned, but considering Sarkeesian’s track record of speaking regardless of death threats, it wouldn’t be a surprise if everything continued with increased security. [UPDATE: Unfortunately, the talk has been cancelled]
You can read the manifesto obtained by The Standard here, although this is not recommended.
