Gamergate as a possible foreign espionage operation


"Gamergate" refers to an influence operation of extraordinary power
that has successfully targeted the major cultural centers of the Internet
using a combination of simple persuasion, threats, and computer intrusion.

The goal of this operation is discourage all investigation of this operation
and its participants, which began after one of these participants became a 
public figure through a now-notorious boyfriend's expose of her sex life.

The strategies used by this operation are to: 

1. Eliminate all online references to this operation and its participants.
2. Discourage investigations of the operation by harassing, slandering, or
financially ruining individual investigators.

Precedents:

 * The anti-American propaganda campaigns of Wikileaks were accompanied
by a widespread perception management operation by hundreds of individuals
pushing talking points and seeking to suppress dissenting arguments,
including the banning of dissenting users from Hacker News.
 * Certain Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah psyops have been accompanied
by censorship of the opposition, such as the banning of dissenting users
from the popular forums Boingboing and Daily Kos.


Strategic concerns 

Several of the Internet's most popular information centers are under
the full control of a party that is demonstatedly opposed to the
American values of free speech, honesty, and fair play. If this 
organization becomes hostile to US interests in general, it could
use its power directly against US interests at a future crisis point.

A comparison can be made to the NSA's desire for the ability to read
all of the content that is placed on the Internet. This organization
seeks the ability to control what content is shared on the internet
by controlling the high-traffic meeting areas where popular culture
is formed, and the organization had made strong progress in achieving
that objective at the time its presence was exposed.


Attributes of the attacking power

* International 

While most reports are from the United States, people from 
Australia and Japan have reported having cause to be afraid of
the organization's reach.

* Secretive 

After a month of investigation by thousands of online activists,
the identities of the attackers are not known. The few leaks that
have occurred have exposed very little. Whoever they are, they know
how to keep a tight ship.

* Disciplined

The organization's operatives follow the same talking points, 
ignore any attempt to engage in debate, and hound dissenters.
For targets that resist this harassment, a common second level of
attack is to publicly engage the target in a discussion while
sending a threat using a private channel, followed by several
people gloating to the victim about the threat. This is usually
done in such a careful way that no single incident would qualify
as a crime. The common pattern suggests an experienced crew.

* Effective

The organization quickly achieved total control over some of the
Internet's most resiliently chaotic and independently-minded
communities: Wikipedia, 4chan, Reddit, Something Awful, and the
Internet Archive. Given how quickly some of these fell in line,
it is suspected that the organization had personnel in place as
administrators of these sites before the current controversy began. 

* Poor leadership 

Whoever is calling the shots of this organization is not as well
disciplined as the operatives. It was the organization's overreaction
to the public identification of Zoe Quinn that exposed its existence.
It was the organization's overreaching, in controlling the content
of popular websites and media, that exposed its power. 

* Influential in the games industry

Multiple employees of game developers have reported that they were
told not to speak on this issue because it would ruin their careers
or their company's future.

* Influential in wider journalism 

The organization has planted suppressive propaganda in multiple
traditional news publications.

* Connected to a "public relations" network

Multiple small public relations companies appear to be involved.

* Knowledgeable of hacking techniques 

There are numerous reports of investigators having their websites 
attacked with botnets or broken into and having had their personal
information exposed, including bank account numbers.

* Influential in technology enthusiast circles