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Donglegate

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Online shaming incident

Donglegate was an online shaming incident. A double entendre on the word "dongle" was overheard at a Python Conference (PyCon) programmers' convention on March 17, 2013, which led to two people being fired and a denial-of-service attack.

History

In March 2013, at the PyCon technology conference, Adria Richards, a female participant heard two men seated nearby using the words "dongle" and "forking" in reference to the male presenter, which she perceived as a sexual joke (see sexual innuendo). She photographed the attendees with their faces visible, then published the photograph on Twitter including a shaming statement in her tweet. The following day, the employer of one of the photographed individuals, a software developer, terminated his employment because of the joke.

In response to the public shaming of the developers, Internet users who were uninvolved launched a DDoS attack on the woman's employer, SendGrid, and according to an article by Jon Ronson in The New York Times Magazine, demanded her firing. SendGrid subsequently terminated her employment later the same day. Following the incident, PyCon updated its attendee rules stating, "Public shaming can be counter-productive to building a strong community. PyCon does not condone nor participate in such actions out of respect."

In a 2014 interview, the woman—still unemployed—speculated whether the developer was responsible for instigating the Internet backlash against her. The developer, who was offered a new job "right away", said he had not engaged with those who sent him messages of support, and had posted a short statement on Hacker News the same night after he was fired saying in part that the woman had "every right to report me to staff, and I defend her position".

See also

References

  1. ^ Ronson, Jon (2015-02-21). "'Overnight, everything I loved was gone': the internet shaming of Lindsey Stone". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-02-04.
  2. "Techie Adria Richards fired after tweeting about men's comments". CBS News.
  3. Zandt, Deanna. "Why Asking What Adria Richards Could Have Done Differently Is The Wrong Question". Forbes.
  4. ^ Vuong, Andy (March 25, 2013). "SendGrid employee's tweet sets off firestorm". The Denver Post. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
  5. ^ Ronson, Jon (February 12, 2015). "How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco's Life". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
  6. "How "dongle" jokes got two people fired—and led to DDoS attacks". Ars Technica. 21 March 2013.
  7. "Hi, I'm the guy who made a comment about big dongles". news.ycombinator.com.
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