GamerGate: Should female programmers feel afraid?

The South-by-Southwest (SXSW) festival in the US is reportedly considering holding an all-day event on online harassment.
Event organisers had been criticised after cancelling two gaming panels, citing "numerous threats of on-site violence". One panel would have focused on gaming journalism integrity. The other would have looked at harassment in gaming.

It follows the GamerGate row, which was associated by some with the harassment of female game developers. However, supporters of the GamerGate campaign suggest they themselves became the victims of abuse after they tried to highlight conflicts of interest in the video games industry.

Naomi Alderman, novelist and the co-creator of ZOMBIES, RUN! a smartphone fitness game, and technology journalist Kate Bevan discussed the issues around GamerGate and SXSW on the Today programme.

“What these people want is for you to feel afraid,” Alderman told James Naughtie. “We counter terrorism of this sort by not feeling afraid.”