Bully Hunters

Overview

Bully Hunters was a livestream event held in mid-April 2018 which aimed to combat misogynist harassment in video games by deploying "bully hunters" to kill abusive opponents in the game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Background

On April 6th, 2018, the Bully Hunters YouTube channel uploaded a trailer for their upcoming livestream about harassment in video games (reupload shown below).

On April 12th, 2018, the event was streamed on Facebook and Twitch, during which hosts discussed misogynist video game harassment and broadcast Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches in which a "bully hunter" is dispatched to take down a harassing player in-game (shown below).

Developments

News Media Coverage

On April 11th, Paste Magazine^[4] published an article titled "What Bully Hunters Gets Wrong About Harassment in Video Games." The same day, The following day, Polygon^[2] published an article about the event titled "Vigilante group plans attack on gaming misogynists."

Online Reaction

On April 12th, Twitter user @PlatinumParagon posted a tweet criticizing Bully Hunters host Nati Casanova (a.k.a. ZombiUnicorn) of "spreading false data about mental health research" (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 9,700 likes and 3,400 retweets.

Meanwhile, Twitter user @WeWuzMetokur tweeted a video of Casanova calling opponents "faggots" during a Twitch stream (shown below).

Also on April 12th, Twitter user @Bortug tweeted several screenshots of Casanova's tweet in which she calls people "cunts", "fucking moron" and "fucking idiot" (shown below).

On April 13th, YouTuber Izzy Nobre uploaded a video about the livestream titled "The Hilarious Failure of #BullyHunters" (shown below). That Day, @PlatinumParagon published a blog post titled "A Breakdown of BullyHunter's False Data Claims," expanding upon the criticisms made in her previous tweet.^[3]

Search Interest

External References