The GamerGate community emerged in 2014 as a contentious movement within gaming culture that quickly became a significant case study in online harassment, political mobilization, and the intersection of consumer activism with broader cultural and political conflicts.

Initially framed around concerns about ethics in gaming journalism, the movement rapidly evolved into a broader culture war battleground involving feminism, progressive politics, and online harassment. The community developed sophisticated coordination tactics across multiple platforms, pioneering techniques that would later be adopted by other political movements.

GamerGate represented an early example of how online communities could mobilize around cultural grievances and translate them into sustained political action, including harassment campaigns, alternative media creation, and attempts to influence mainstream discourse through coordinated pressure campaigns.