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Tag Archives: Alex Lifschitz

Crash Override Network combats online harassment

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Ken Gagne

For six years, I worked as an editor at Computerworld.com. Since 2013, I’ve been a freelance writer for the website, which published my anti-doxxing feature this past November. As a follow-up to that piece, editor Rebecca Linke dusted off my old blog, Techbits, and allowed me to offer the following editorial commentary on this week’s Polygamer interview with Zoe Quinn and Alex Lifschitz.


The Internet is becoming a more dangerous place, with trolls and pranksters able to escalate online grievances into real-world threats. Doxxing — the unauthorized publication of someone’s personal contact information or financial records — and swatting — anonymously reporting a fake threat in order to get a SWAT team sent to someone’s home — are two of the more alarming methods being used.

But the tide may be turning, as more intended victims start to fight back. The latest is Zoe Quinn, the original target of GamerGate, the disorganized movement ostensibly about ethics in games journalism but more commonly associated with misogyny and harassment. Quinn has been continuously harassed and threatened since last August. She has not been home in nearly six months, saying, “it’s no longer safe to be [there] while we try and figure out how to move on from this meteor hitting us and be people again.”

Enough is enough.

Continue reading at Computerworld.com »

Posted in Elsewhere | Tags: Alex Lifschitz, Computerworld, Crash Override, cyberbullying, doxxing, harassment, IDG, swatting, Techbits, Zoe Quinn |

Polygamer #15: Zoë Quinn & Alex Lifschitz of Crash Override

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Ken Gagne

In January 2015, Zoë Quinn and Alex Lifschitz debuted Crash Override, an online anti-harassment task force. The organization provides crisis center support, ongoing assistance to victims, and community outreach and activism. The network is staffed by online abuse survivors such as Lifschitz and Quinn, the latter being the developer of Depression Quest and the original target of GamerGate.

In this interview, Quinn and Lifschitz discuss how Crash Override was designed to combat this new movement of hate, how to be proactive without being victim-blaming, the ways in which Crash Override will grow and be funded, and why the video game industry allowed GamerGate to happen.

Download the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

Continue reading →
https://media.blubrry.com/polygamer/www.polygamer.net/wp-content/uploads/podcast/pg15-crash_override.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:38 — 26.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More

Posted in Podcast | Tags: abuse, Alex Lifschitz, Crash Override, crisis center, cyberbullying, Depression Quest, doxxing, GamerGate, harassment, task force, Zoe Quinn |

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