GamerGate refers to the online backlash against perceived breaches of journalistic integrity on video game news sites that occurred as a result of the Quinnspiracy, an online controversy surrounding indie game developer Zoe Quinn’s alleged affairs with a number of male writers working in the video game news industry.

• Summary: The fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager from Ferguson, Missouri, by a St. Louis Police Department officer in August 2014, which took place less than a month after the controversial "chokehold" death of Eric Garner by an New York Police Department officer, instantly sparked a nationwide protest both online and offline against police brutality and racial profiling, similar to the large-scale protests that erupted in the wake of the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012.

• Summary: A portmanteau of the words “happening” and “fap”, the Fappening was a massive nude photograph leak featuring various high profile celebrities that were posted on 4chan in late August 2014. Many speculated that the images were stolen via Apple’s iCloud service, which hosts photographs taken with iPhone mobile devices online.

• Summary: "Twitch Plays Pokemon" is an ongoing live-stream event hosted by the video-streaming platform Twitch in which any member of the site can participate in a massively multiplayer online co-op version of Nintendo’s 1996 role-playing video game Pokémon Red by inputting various commands in chat.

• Summary: 2014 Brazil World Cup is the 20th international men’s football tournament organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) that took place in Brazil from June 12th to July 13th, 2014.