A data nerd’s analysis of #GamerGate

Those using the hashtag are highly polarised with individuals falling into one of two camps and rarely engaging with the other side

Whatever your opinion on #GamerGate it can be viewed from a data analytics perspective as a collection of emotion-laden tweets that happen to share the same hashtag. Personally, I find it hard to believe that a blog post from the aggrieved ex-boyfriend of a games developer has snowballed into a "women/gamers/journalists are jerks" debacle. Anyway, data nerd (and former Kickstarter CTO) Andy Baio has gathered some #GamerGate tweets and looked for patterns. Interestingly he found that roughly 25 per cent of all activity is coming from new Twitter accounts created in the last two months and those supporting #GamerGate tend to have less followers and newer accounts than its critics. Also, unsurprisingly, those using the hashtag are highly polarised with individuals falling into one of two camps and rarely engaging with the other side.

https://medium.com/message/72-hours-of- gamergate-e00513f7cf5d