Brianna Wu is latest dev threatened and driven out of home

Brianna Wu is the head of development at Giant Spacekat, an all-women Boston-based developer, and she's the latest to feel threatened by extreme fringes of the GamerGate crowd. After a number of awful threats against her on Twitter, Wu had no choice but to alert the authorities. The threats did show that the person correctly identified Wu and her husband's address, so Wu and the police agreed that they should flee their home for their safety.

[Warning: To see the full extent of the graphic nature of these threats, you can view a summary of the timeline here.]

Sadly, this isn't a rare occurrence. The GamerGaters also have threatened rape and death against Tropes vs Women in Games creator Anita Sarkeesian and Depression Quest developer Zoe Quinn. Detractors sometimes accuse people like Sarkeesian of fabricating the threats in an effort to advance their feminist cause, and unfortunately some have already said that Wu has somehow made up the threats to promote herself.

"I am a professional developer, and I'd like to think I'm well regarded in this field," she told Polygon. "I can think of no quicker way to destroy my career than making up a false allegation like this, getting the FBI involved and getting arrested over it. It's absurd."

Wu did confirm that she briefly returned home to "make sure nothing had been vandalized and to pick up some computer equipment," but added that she's "not planning on being home for a while." The Arlington Police Department has filed the incident with the department's Criminal Investigation Bureau. Wu has also reported the case to the FBI and a detective in Boston.