[inaudible conversations] hi, everybody. Thank you for being here. Im lilly myer, the Events Manager at politics and prose. Im glad you all came. First a few things before we get started. In case you missed the sign, this weekend is a member sale. All books or 20 off if youre a member. Youre not a member, its a great way to support your local indy book store and get 25 off and the other way to support your local book store is attend a evens. In september were hosting salmon rushdie. I hope youll join us and for those who have never joined us for an event before, a couple notes how things work. Sheing speak and then take questions and then sign books right here. So, when the eventes over, please fold upper chair, the book severalled will thank you very much, and lean it against any shelf and then go to he check out there and come back here to get it signed. For q a, were him inning in cspan is him inning so please ask your questions into the audience mic right there. Im done pointing now, promise. Make sure your question is a question. So lot of people can ask questions elm zoe quince one of the industrys most critically acclaimedded indy developer. She is also one of the world most courageous advocate ford victims of online abuse. With her grassroots organization, crash overright network and her own writing and speaking and just personal bravely she is an absolute hero to anyone in the target of online hate. Im not going to tell you about the attacks she had to face down because you know, you know about gamergate you know that in sows are records it wills a flash point im sorry for the online hatred that helped put donald trump in the white house and zoe fought back against the it has and she won. She learned to protect herself and teach other people to protect themselves. Its an honor to have her at p p and im glad you came to listen. [applause] thank you for that intro intro itch went the wrong way trying to get off to the stage so were off to a good start. Hi, and thank you for coming out and supporting crash override or the most depressing testimonial of all time. If youre not familiar with gamergate, because even itch you are it was kind of a mess of miamis and jargon anyway so if youre internet savvy, what the hell is this . To give you sort of the tldr of it, i dated this other programmer on and off again most his off again for five months, and instead of just letting it go since it was kind of a crappy abusive relationship hi outsourced the abuse to the internet which is like kick startert but yelling at people youre mad at. And it ask escalate how i was secretly controlling the Online Gaming interest with shadowy makeouts. Ill take you into more but well come out on the shorter, ill talk about subjected that are a little bit rough if you have been a survivor of Domestic Violence or probably just someone who didnt have a good day on november 7th in general, so just fyi thats a thing. What happened needly happened immediately. Knew there was something out there before i knew what it was because there were zed suddenly people yelling at me and like the a kid counting the distance of a storm with the thunder clap it was like that but with my phone notifications buzzing and they would buzz quicker and quicker and quicker until it was just luke i had to not look at it, and that first night i just all could die is numbly scroll don is a saw people construct this were fiction how i was ruining gaming by existing, and having the gal to gall to make a game. That turned into threats of murder, rape, anything you can imagine, anything you would find in a fox news comment section. And everybody that was even tangentially related and some people if havent met have been targets as well. It was simultaneously the most personal and least personal thing in the entire world because, the attacks were extremely personal because it was about me and a sexualized version of my life an angry excrated be and i was a standin for anxiety people had about people that werent liking likit existing in spaces they cared about. This went outside the gaming industry and was a flash point for the altright but these guys have been around forever. I say guys but its everybody. When i was put on breitbart, things getting stair er and stormfront trying to recruit gamerred that were mad at me and that got very weird. I didnt still weird. Its like i dont know if you have ever read hitchhikers guide but the cloaking thing is someone elses thing. You park a spaceship on a planet because this tiesward and its someone elses problem. Doing the book is like trying to do my own autopsy. The threats were bad. People were talking about putting dead animals in the mail box and extending me pictures of my dads house and calling my dead and in the and not knowing that would do when they actually got through because i didnt change my number for a few weeks and they seemed very confused when i answered. They were like, is this zoe quinn . And im like, yeah, you dialed my number. Just hitting buttons randomly . Oh, your phone number it on the internet. Im like, uhhuh. Theyre like, oh, and then they panic and hang up or apologize. But i mean its nothing else, its weird. My generation calls people, god. So, there was that component of it and it was hard to face other people that were targets as with a tenuous connection to me. The sadder part was seeing these institutions that were in name supposed be the sort of thing that is there to help, completely fumble, and fumble spectacularly and usually contribute to the problem. I had to deal with too many members of the press just simply reporting on the false accusation that i had if you actually look at what would have taken this to be true, had traveled back in time to sleep with a game reviewer for that worked for a web site i had already written for so obvious low could not have gotten that connection any other way, slept with him to get a review of my game that never existed, and the game is also free. And also why did i set my target for not like the new york times. Basically im a time traveling ho is more or less what the chief accusation came down to, and is up there with the other accusations about the numerous people i have supposedly murdered, im a treasonous person that should be tried under the logan act which is funnive you know anything about that. And i am actually a vampire. There is some people that think i am actually a vampire. Its great. Those are more fun. But seeing the fact that so many members of the media would just report on this instead of saying, she was a accused of having sex for reviews and then not following that up and just spreading the misinformation. You could finish the sentence and say that never happened. The never happened part seemed kind of important but who do i know im just a time traveling vampire ho. Seeing big Tech Industries and people that i talked to that were in positions to help, that could press a biton and make stuff actually not suck, fork hell, dont know about this, this like this death threat doesnt say what weapon they use use to kill you, so its not actually a terms of service violation. We have to get back to shutting down anybody who posted against the olympics immediately. My bad. And unfortunately i just had to do something with Law Enforcement against my better judgment after they were brigading the irs with false reports of tax fraud too get me outauditted. Thought i needed a paper trail. It was like a constant state of shock as finding out how many how much of this worked. Intel pulled ads from a blog that had nothing to do if with any of this because somebody said, games are really broad and theyre no one gamer identity anymore because theyre too many people that play game out in and thats great. This was turned into this weird, theyre saying gamers are dead. Theyre literally killing us now. Its like, no, thats a good thing that more whatever. So Major Companies like intel and mercedesbenz and all of these miami who should know better were bending their knees. One thing to get mad at the baby that is driving your car. Its another thing to be mad at the person who gives them the key in the first displays not taking it away. And theres no shocking thing to me was like, while i do good to Law Enforcement, i knew things were bad that i didnt know how bad because im still like an easy victim for that system to support. Im like a young are white woman, home run for them in terms of what they think a victim looks like, but even then still that systemic she was asking for and it didnt actually do it but she was asking for it. Have you looked at her . And indogs to the fact i went up to get the restraining odd against miss exbecause he was talking about doing sequel, saying harassment is bad bus here a few more people she payment have leapt with and look into these pavement im saying the number is hundred now. She cheated on me with hundred people. Which is like who has the time . Especially in five months. Thats, like, impressive. I went up to this judge with a stack of legal documents, like this big, and im like, i watched this face as he they in civil Court Everyone is sitting around and they call your number and they go on to the next one. He got my big stack of these i had printed out so much stuff i actually brock my friends printer. Law enforcement doesnt know what to do with video either even though i had video and a lot of this happened with videos. And i just saw his, like, eye goes like this after a few pages and he is like, all right. What do you want in the to do here . Im like, i dont really know. I kind of thought that was your thing. And he had basically taken what i had season verbatim and written it as a special clause in rerestraining order and that is a really fucking bad in move. High, game delver who is shaking and freaked out and holding a stack of Death Threats can couple up with legal terms on the spot. I thought he would translate into legales or know anything and that was not the case. And that restraining order meant i was having court bat. Withmy ex for two years, even though though re restraining order this maximum you can get in masts is one, it was still that fulltime, plows another year of having to fight this thing. That was the opposite of what i wanted itch didnt want to see him anymore. Regardlesses, i could feel a number of books with just the blowbyblow ridiculous an neck totes of stuff that happened and especially since its the internet and because it became the pop culture thing, like theres so much it was like kind of hard to write best thaws its right do i talk about the time that a First Amendment attorney things his seem men is magic, spent five figures to follow me and talk about the time the disturbed lead singer ruined my breakfast. These things sound ridiculous when i say it out loud. Powell home have a breakup so bad the u. N. Has to get involved and helps usher in fascism. Regardless, thats not what this book is. Decided to write this book partially after a posting on twitter announced you should actually write that book, though. But mainly because im still an engineer at heart and when i have to do something over and over and over, im like can i automate this . It would be better. Can i get a robot to do this for me . So, it seemed easier for me to just put it all in dead tree format because if nothing else, it became so apparent to me that what happened to me was not at all uncommon, and, yes, how it blew up and the historical role it played is weird, but its kind of like finding shit in your food at restaurant. I didnt know if i could swear. Good. Good, thank god. Sorry, cspan. But its like finding shit in your food at a restaurant. Doesnt matter if its a little bit or know theres shty in vs. If you eat an entire turd sandwich, youre not going back there i hear too many people saying what happened to me dish dont want to compare. Its like, no, any is bad. It should be zero, and what happened to me became this gigantic publish flash point and people say youre the only person i can talk to about what happened to me. Quickly wasnt until writing this book and talking with other people about it that it was pointed out that the a common theme any life is something doesnt exist i wish chested i make it instead of waiting for one to dot tar foe. Dont know it thats because aim the doc of a mechanic but im thankful for that. The last court dated had the judge ended up telling me, if this is what i dont understand theirs whole internet thing. Im like, but itch this is what its like youy shoo just go offline. Im like this im an independent game develop ever exyoure asking know give on my career and he said on hi was out the door, find a new career. So i did. Mother fucker. I start evidence grassrootses organization after seven emergencies of this dirk which i head been unable to go home. People were outside of my house waiting for me and you have to play this nazi thing, just some edgy hot topic asshole or Elliott Roger because they sound the same online i. Was tired of watching im still aim a game designer and think in systems. So the systemiic fall our was to obvious and to predictable that even early on when people were becoming targeted, we knew it would happen, we were i found their irc channels they were coordinating attackness because i was a shitty channeler when i was young. I know where this comes from, super hacktivism. I was like, lets get scientology when i was teenager. Know the illegal shit helps and amoner toed and required it fork worths and got in front of the next tarring every time i could warned them in advance. You should lock down this, this and this, probably going to that could next. Dont do this. Lets fix you up good. And the turned into farmal asing that to help more people other than people who were targeted for a lose association of maybe become being in a room with me much became crash override. How do we build the solution a solution . Theres no one. And its like, okay wishes have to make sure what we create account be used to abuse other people. That was a big component. Stuff that was supposed to help is used against you. So its like, okay, lets craft it around consent and involvement of the person targeted because thats the most important thing. The first thing hat happen you feel like you have lost control and nothing you can do better than to return some legal of control back to someones life. So theres noun noh one theres no one size fits all. It doesnt matter if you want to hide, if you want to speak out, both of those are completely valid, and makes me a little bet upset when people say youre brave for fighting and i think im kind of disturb born and its not brave to say fuck this and im out. You look at your life and say do deserve better than this. So we figure out what this persons end goal was and then work backwards how to achieve this, and every time we found of ourselves every can the same conversations over and over again we other try to again do automation thing, write a guide, use the same tools used to make games to marrying a interactive check lift of locking down. Its so many panel dont understand when youre targeted it its so much work. Even just bagging and tagging if you want to do that, or filling out reports, its work. And making that easier for people to do was super important and we found Better Success rates. Here are small things you can do in a row. Heres a number that goes up when you do it because our brains like that. And its all here. You dont have to talk to another person whoa when youre probably freaked out and dont want to talk to anybody anymore. The big this we did was try to act as an intermediary between the giant institutions i was mad expect the people that were actually affected. People would say this is happening to me here. Im like have youve filled out a report . Do you want action to be taken . They say, yes, im going to try to hustle out a contact because while the institutions were super broken, there were still people that whatnotted to do the right thing working within them. And anytime i could get movement because theres someone a working person in a broken system that could get stuff done, that did so much to help people get results they needed. And it was interesting how my writing in the second half over the book, which is entirely dedicated to my time working in trying to its like the first part is the crash part. The second part is the override part. Im a fucking dork and stuff like that. So, it became very clear that as awrote this and did more advocacy because i have done client we dont charge um ive handed then thousands of these case its personally over the least two years, and that sucks. That super gets to you, not because of seeing all that and being reminded of when it happened to you but goto people that can press a pet button fix ex, hearing the bull shit and having to go back to person and say they saw, they didnt care, what would you want to do now . And it theres a lot in the book that im going to be in trouble with for saying, but the thing with a lot of the institutions they trade access for silence, and sometimes you have to sit and burn a bridge youre Still Standing on so they know youre not fucking around anymore. Hope that got to have that hope. So, as depressing as it is to like look at these massive institutions that are failing us, and see things like too many people want thing solution to be more Law Enforcement when the inverse is true because people who are not white are disproportionately targetedded and we flav a country where the cops moore likely to kill you than help you, and beyond the fact we would have a punitive system that it punishes offenders instead ofhelping targets and the speed of this thing its liming overlike your shit fog go hell and never come back. Just in Internet Time and the Law Enforcement bodies move so slowly. Its years later when anything happens and can then its usually leak youre doing to it make a point, not because it will help. So, we its sounded bleak that basically everything is broken and nobody is doing what they should be doing. But the inverse is true, too, if you think about it because we do not have to wait for. Shouldnt wait for institutions to give a shit about us. We have to take care of each other. Thats the biggest thing, having someone around that understood and could talk to you and say, jo offhundred or say its like the ewith help on, theres people on your lawn that want you to die. Just use the back door, its fine. Everything is fine. Having that in their life and people that can do that sort of help and help with just the workload, would be a better predictor of a more positive outcome than any action taken by Law Enforcement or tech platforms or anything and that was immediate. So people did support networks and that had some kind of savvy to either the social aspect of what was happening or the tech aspect. Hav