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Brianna Wu, a game developer best known for mobile game Revolution 60 and for being a significant target of the hate movement Gamergate, has set her sights on Congress, planning to run for a seat in the U.S House of Representatives in 2018.
She hasn’t come out and announced her run properly yet, but her Twitter bio now includes the addition: "Probably running for office in 2018" while her Twitter profile picture has echoes of Obama’s Hope campaign poster from 2008, although with her name, Wu, at the bottom instead of the iconic Hope.
The rumours started when she posted a picture on her Facebook bearing the slogan: “She fought the Alt.Right and won. Now she’s fighting for all of us. Fearless leadership for 2018.”
She confirmed that she was serious about the possibility of running to VentureBeat and, although she hasn’t put the wheels of her campaign in motion yet, she’s already putting together a team of advisors to help set her agenda, which she says will focus on the economy.
"My main agenda will be economic. Here in Massachusetts, taxpayers spend an amazing amount on subsidizing education – particularly with infrastructure." Said Wu in an interview with VentureBeat "But then students and entrepreneurs take that investment by our state to San Francisco or Austin, I think we can do a much better job keeping startups here in our state. Also, look at the game industry, which has been devastated here in Boston with the loss of Irrational and others."
“I’d hope to serve on the House technology subcommittee. It was very disturbing to me to see members of the House tie the Mirai botnet (malware that hijacks computers) to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), simply parroting special interests. It’s an example of how our tech policy doesn’t serve the American people. We need people making policy that actually understand technology, that understand the assault on our privacy. It’s a national security issue, and we’re failing badly.”
Wu said she’s looking to run because she’s looking for a "bolder Democratic Party" and that she’s hoping to have a bigger impact on the country, rather than just the state she’s looking to represent. If Wu runs, she’s said she’ll move away from her work with Giant Spacekat.
