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FBI's 'Gamergate' file: prosecutors declined to charge men who admitted on video to death threats
The day before Halloween, FBI agents showed up at the home of a Massachusetts man linked to dozens of rape, bomb, and death threats targeting women involved in the video game scene. They believed he was a supporter of Gamergate, the militant online movement that wants to end feminist criticism of video games.
The man, whose name was kept confidential by the FBI, confessed: He told the agents that he was a "tech guy," a qualified A++ coder, who played video games a lot and lived with his parents, according to a set of documents the FBI released on its investigation into Gamergate.
...
Then the agents showed him one of those threatening emails. The man said he had created a new email account specifically for the purpose of sending threats to Gamergate targets. He "admitted to sending the threatening email," the FBI wrote in its report, and he "understood the email 'looked really bad.'" Crucially, he also confessed that he knew it was a crime: The man "understood that it was a federal crime to send a threatening communication to anyone and will never do it again," the FBI wrote.
Yet despite all that — an email trail, a confession, and an admission from the suspect that he knew he was breaking the law — the FBI let him go after the suspect said it was a "joke":
http://uk.businessinsider.com/gamergate-fbi-file-2017-2/
The man, whose name was kept confidential by the FBI, confessed: He told the agents that he was a "tech guy," a qualified A++ coder, who played video games a lot and lived with his parents, according to a set of documents the FBI released on its investigation into Gamergate.
...
Then the agents showed him one of those threatening emails. The man said he had created a new email account specifically for the purpose of sending threats to Gamergate targets. He "admitted to sending the threatening email," the FBI wrote in its report, and he "understood the email 'looked really bad.'" Crucially, he also confessed that he knew it was a crime: The man "understood that it was a federal crime to send a threatening communication to anyone and will never do it again," the FBI wrote.
Yet despite all that — an email trail, a confession, and an admission from the suspect that he knew he was breaking the law — the FBI let him go after the suspect said it was a "joke":
http://uk.businessinsider.com/gamergate-fbi-file-2017-2/
Lots more at the link. It happened time and time again. The 4chan guys have been sent a message "you can make whatever threats you want, as long as you say "it was a joke" when caught".