Depression Quest creator speaks at congressional briefing on cyberstalking

Zoe Quinn, the Depression Quest creator and co-founder of support group Crash Override, spoke at a congressional briefing this morning about cyberstalking and online threats.

The National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, National Council of Women's Organizations and The National Organization for Women are holding the congressional briefing in partnership with U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.)

During the briefing, experts will discuss the prevalence of cyberstalking and online threats and how to combat them.

According to today's Congressional briefing:

Cyberstalking and online threats are serious issues in our digital age. According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, nearly one in five (18 percent) of all internet users have experienced severe forms of online abuse, including physical threats, stalking, sustained harassment and/or sexual harassment. Young female internet users (age 18-24) experience the most severe online violence.

Others scheduled to attend include Michelle Garcia, director of the Stalking Resource Center; John Wilkinson, attorney advisor at AEquitas: The Prosecutors' Resource on Violence Against Women; and Danielle Keats Citron, author of Hate Crimes in Cyberspace and professor at the University of Maryland School of Law.

The presentations and follow up questions and answers session was live streamed on Periscope. But you can watch Quinn's introductory talk below:

Quinn's harassment has been associated with the GamerGate movement, a Twitter hashtag and social campaign defined by most supporters as a call to effect change in video game journalism, and to defend the "gamer" identity.

The movement is difficult to define because what it has come to represent has no central leadership or agreed-upon manifesto. The hashtag was first used by actor Adam Baldwin in August after intimate details of a personal relationship between Quinn and a video game journalist were posted online, leading to widespread allegations of cronyism between press and developers.

GamerGate also has been accused of harassment of women in video games, including Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian and Giant Spacekat head Brianna Wu, though many of GamerGate's supporters deny the campaign should be blamed.