Brianna Wu

Career

Wu was born in West Virginia and raised in Mississippi by adoptive parents. She grew up in an entrepreneurial environment; her father was a retired US Navy doctor who opened his own clinic, and her mother ran a series of small businesses. In 2003 she enrolled at the University of Mississippi, studying journalism and political science. At the age of 19, she formed a small animation studio to create an animated pilot episode. The venture was unsuccessful, resulting in her withdrawal from college and a move to Washington, D.C. to work in political fundraising for several years. She later worked as a journalist until she was inspired by the release of the iPhone to work as a graphical designer and create a video game. In 2008, she married Frank Wu, four-time winner of the Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist. In 2010, she co-founded the company Giant Spacekat with Amanda Stenquist Warner. Wu was co-host of the weekly Isometric podcast on Relay FM. The podcast was launched in May 2014 and covers the video game industry. On April 18, 2016, the Isometric podcast was ended. The same hosts, including Wu, started a new podcast called Disruption on Relay FM, covering technology and culture.

Revolution 60

Wu is credited as head of development for her company Giant Spacekat's game, Revolution 60. It features female protagonists, said to echo the founders of the game studio. The game was demonstrated at Pax East in March 2013, where it was listed as one of the 10 best indie games of the conference. The game, created with the Unreal Engine for a total budget of several hundred thousand dollars, was released for iOS devices in July 2014. In July 2013 Giant Spacekat ran a Kickstarter campaign to fund a Windows release of the game in addition to the iOS version. The fundraiser brought in $12,728, over 250% of the original $5,000 goal. Although the estimated delivery was August 2014, the Windows version was not released until September 2016.

Run for Congress

Wu decided immediately after the 2016 American presidential election to run for a Congressional seat in the greater Boston area, focusing in part on privacy rights and online harassment, but also on the wider Massachusetts economy. She will not be challenging Rep. Katherine Clark of the 5th District, with whom she shares a suite of advocacy concerns, but rather Rep. Stephen F. Lynch of the 8th District, in an announcement she made on Twitter. Wu stated, in a radio interview, that Lynch did not sufficiently represent the Democrats, citing his positions on reproductive health care and LGTB rights. Wu also came out in favor of unions and collective bargaining. Wu feels that Massachusetts proportionally contributes more to the Federal government than it receives in return and wants to use it as leverage in negotiations. She hopes that the Boston Bay area can rival San Francisco Bay as a technology hub. Wu plans to move to the 8th District in order to challenge the incumbent Lynch.

Wu has also cited opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump and failures by Congress regarding technology as reasons for shifting from game development to politics.

Professor Thomas Whalen of Boston University commented that the South Boston 8th district is traditionally conservative and Lynch is native to the area and has strong ties to labor unions, but thinks recent years of changing dynamics could help Wu. Meanwhile, David S. Bernstein, a long-time political reporter for Boston Magazine does not think Wu has a chance of unseating Lynch.

On Twitter in February 2017, Wu posted warnings about the militarization of space, along with concerns over giving private space tourism companies sole access to the Moon. She wrote, "Rocks dropped from (the Moon) have power of 100s of nuclear bombs". She later deleted the tweets.

Gamergate-related harassment

In October 2014, Wu posted multiple tweets about Gamergate advocates, ridiculing them for "fighting an apocalyptic future where women are 8 percent of programmers and not 3 percent." While she was monitoring 8chan's pro-Gamergate chanboard (/gg/), anonymous users posted sensitive personal information about her, including at least one post containing her address. Subsequently, Wu began receiving multiple, specific rape and death threats including her address, causing Wu to flee her home. These threats have been widely attributed to Gamergate supporters. In December Wu said that she had received emails that contained images of mutilated dogs from people who identified as Gamergate supporters, following the recent death of her dog.

Along with Anita Sarkeesian and Zoë Quinn, Wu was one of the targets of GamerGate harassment. In February 2015, she said, "by attacking me so viciously, they’re helping give me the visibility to usher in the very game industry they’re terrified about." Wu started a legal defense fund for women targeted by Gamergate. As of late 2014, the Wu family is also offering a cash reward for information leading to the prosecution of those who sent the death threats. By February 2015 she said she was spending a full day a week contacting law enforcement, and was only attending events in the US with a security detail. In March 2015, she said she had received 48 death threats during the previous six months.

In early 2017, the Federal Bureau of Investigation closed its investigation of the matter. The FBI identified four men who sent threats and obtained confessions from two of them, one of whom stated that they had sent the threat as a "joke" but "understood that it was a federal crime to send a threatening communication to anyone and will never do it again." The U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts declined to prosecute, giving no specific reason. Reacting to the report, Wu stated the FBI did not care about the investigation and that she was "livid".