GamerGate Critic Posts Death Threat Voicemail After Inaction by Prosecutor
Game developer and tech diversity advocate Brianna Wu has been complaining about the lack of action by a prosecuting attorney in response to a death threat voicemail she said she received. On Tuesday, she posted a copy of the voicemail.
Wu’s op-ed article at feminist pop-culture site The Mary Sue raised new questions about whether local or national law enforcement agencies were adequately responding to a wave of anonymous threats she and other women in the game industry have recently faced. The article included a recording of a voicemail left on Wu’s personal phone that called her a “little fucking whore” and threatened to “slit [her] throat.”
Ars was sent a copy of the voicemail with its originating Columbus, Ohio phone number attached, along with call records indicating that the threat was left on Wu’s voicemail on May 12. Wu said that she received more threatening calls from the same number on Wednesday. She has not called the offending number back as per advice from her legal counsel.
In the article, Wu called upon Columbus, Ohio prosecuting attorney Ron O’Brien to issue a subpoena for the name attached to phone records. “If [O’Brien] wished, he could bring criminal charges against this man by the end of the day,” she wrote. (We have contacted O’Brien’s office with a request for comment, and we will update this report with any response.) Wu also hinted to a lack of criminal action taken on behalf of other threats she has received—or on behalf of similar threats sent to developer Zoe Quinn and media critic Anita Sarkeesian.
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