Game Developer Brianna Wu’s Life Was Ruined With A Tweet

Brianna Wu, a game developer who is featured in the new Syfy Network series The Internet Ruined My Life, had her life ruined with a single tweet.

Brianna Wu’s Fateful Tweet

Back in 2014, Wu came out against GamerGate – the harassment campaign against women in the gaming industry – with a series of memes she created. Using images of a boy with his head in his hands, Wu wrote captions like: “Lectures women on how to respond… to the problems she causes,” “Bases entire identity on games… Feels like a bada–” and “Fighting an apocalyptic future… Where women are 8% of programmers and not 3%.”

In Wu’s episode of The Internet Ruined My Life, she says, “This was the tweet that ruined my life,” adding, ”The truth is, the game industry is a really incredibly difficult place for women to work.”

Wu soon became a victim of “doxxing,” the term for Internet trolls that use social media platforms to reveal a target’s personal information, thereby threatening their safety. Wu also was on the receiving end of a number of death threats.

“Your dead mutilated corpse will be on the front page of Jezebel tomorrow,” read one tweet directed at Wu.

Wu decided to be a subject of The Internet Ruined My Life to expose the very real damage doxxing and Internet death threats can cause a person.

“I really want people to understand the human toll,” said Wu, who for a time stayed in various hotels instead of sleeping at her home. “I’m sure when the [episode] comes out, I will get more death threats, rape threats, and people insulting my looks. … But I thought there would be public value in putting it out there.”

The Internet Ruined My Life airs on Syfy Wednesdays at 10/9c.