In August 2014, men seeking to purge the video game industry of women began organizing a coordinated harassment and abuse campaign under the pretext of "ethics in video game journalism", using 4chan for proxy recruitment and the #gamergate hashtag on Twitter for coordination. Apparently, the defamation of Zoe Quinn, as well as continued and escalating harassment of Anita Sarkeesian, launched the campaign. Many other women and genderqueer people who make independent games, or simply critique games, suffered consequences as well.