One of the people who Quinn recruited as volunteer staff for her new harassment support network was Robert Marmolejo, a member of the YouTuber atheist community who regularly hosted his own podcast. Formerly known on twitter as @UnseenPerfidy, Marmolejo was extremely performative in his attacks against #GamerGate. He regularly characterized anyone that participated in the twitter hashtag as a serial abuser.
Although it was not publicly disclosed, Marmolejo was eventually enlisted by Zoe Quinn and entrusted with jointly operating the Crash Override Network’s various social media accounts. This was revealed to the author through a leaked chatlog from one of CON’s Skype meetings, which can be viewed in full at the end of this article.
As a member of Crash Override Network’s staff, Marmolejo was tasked with communicating and counseling victims of online abuse. However, Marmolejo may have abused the trust and private information of his clients to approach them and attempt to solicit sex. Israel ‘Izzy’ Galvez (@iglvzx), another staff member of Crash Override Network, has written that ‘over 20 women have come forward to reveal that Marmolejo sexually harassed them’.
Alarmingly, some of the victims have indicated hesitation to speak out about the harassment they received from Marmolejo due to his reputation as being a “popular male feminist”.
If these accusations prove to be true, they will regrettably not be the first instance of a man adopting the rhetoric of progressive politics and women’s representation in order to further their own sexual agenda. Jian Ghomeshi, Hugo Schwyzer, Charles Clymer, Devin Faraci, and Matt Hickey have been similarly indicted.
For my part, as someone who has been mistakenly accused of harassment by anti-#GamerGate and who has sometimes been the target of harassment by their well-meaning supporters, I wonder what impact Marmolejo’s actions will have — if any — on Zoe Quinn’s future prospects as a leader in online abuse prevention.