Whatever you think about what Oculus founder Palmer Luckey did, his girlfriend had nothing to do with it. But that didn’t stop certain members of the media from targeting her and making her an unwilling participant in Luckey’s story.
In case you missed it, Luckey was accused of funding a pro-Trump nonprofit that attempted to bring anti-Hillary Clinton memes into the real world, through billboards and t-shirts. He allegedly posted on the Donald Trump subreddit and attempted to pay members of the community for their memes. According to members of r/the_donald, they thought the prospect was shady and did not participate, and to this date only one anti-Hillary billboard was created.
The Daily Beast published the story and started a media firestorm. But where things became bizarre is when Luckey’s girlfriend, a cosplayer who goes by Nikki Moxxi, became part of the conversation.
Gizmodo published a story naming Moxxi as a “Gamergater” and shaming her for her political opinions. While the story briefly summarized the Luckey scandal, almost half the story was Tweets and pictures scrubbed from Moxxi’s social media. Vice’s Motherboard also published a story naming Moxxi.
Palmer Luckey, millionaire founder of Oculus Rift, loves Donald Trump and dates a GamerGater https://t.co/PSsx7S2Fso pic.twitter.com/XF9nTr3GgA
— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) September 23, 2016
Other tech journalists also began tweeting out the identity of Luckey’s girlfriend. Less than a day later, Moxxi deleted her Twitter account.
.@PalmerLuckey's girlfriend. https://t.co/2uBofJAk9I
— Kim-Mai Cutler (@kimmaicutler) September 23, 2016
A quick Twitter search shows the attacks made against her within the past day pic.twitter.com/Yn4xhF74Ye
— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) September 23, 2016
Gawker Media (now Gizmodo Media) has had a long and storied confrontation with Gamergate which appears to continue to this day, even after Gawker’s demise. It appears that Gamergate plans on fighting back and will spam Gizmodo’s parent company Univision with complaints that the story broke their code of conduct regarding newsworthiness.
Follow me on Twitter @William__Hicks.
