Kotaku Senior Editor Alyssa Mercante called for her followers to report former World of Warcraft Team Lead Mark Kern over an April Fool’s joke.
Alyssa Mercante via Blerd Without Fear! YouTUbe
On April 1st, Kern posted to X, “It is my pleasure to finally announce my wedding to Kotaku Senior Editor Alyssa Mercante! Everyone is invited.” This was accompanied with a “Save the Date” meme.
It is my pleasure to finally announce my wedding to Kotaku Senior Editor Alyssa Mercante!
Everyone is invited. pic.twitter.com/aKvfuvbyjf
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 1, 2024
In a now-deleted post, Mercante called for her followers to report Kern. She wrote on X, “Report this please ty!”
Alyssa Mercante on X
Interestingly, Mercante did not appear to realize the post was an April Fool’s joke given she followed up her own now-deleted post writing, “Save the date! **puts no date”
Alyssa Mercante on X
READ: Kotaku Editor-in-Chief Jen Glennon Resigns
After deleting the post, Mercante doubled down in a thread where she not only called for her followers to continue to report Kern, but described him, gamers, and even Elon Musk as misogynists.
She wrote, “Yes, what is happening to me (and other women on this app) is misogyny. It’s tired, it’s old, it’s boring. They’re mad that I am comfortable in my sexuality, that I once made money off of it, that I’m openly queer and engaged to a man, so they do s**t like this.”
Alyssa Mercante on X
She continued, “They don’t like that I clap back. That I post a**. It makes them angrier and angrier so they resort to lower and lower levels of misogyny. As a woman on the internet, I’ve been training for this my entire life. Let’s go.”
“They want their women to be virtually silent, overly sexualized dolls in video games that they can jerk off to without having to wash their ass, or clip their nails, or show even a single attractive quality,” she opined.
Alyssa Mercante on X
Finally, she concluded, “Obviously this app is owned by a man who did the exact same thing to AOC so no, I don’t expect reports to do anything, but flood it anyway.”
Alyssa Mercante on X
Kern responded to Mercante’s call to have her followers report him writing on X, “Yesterday, a Kotaku reporter called for people to report my account for my April fool’s joke and get me cancelled for it, just like they tried with KabrutusRambo.”
He continued, “They tried to create a story in community notes painting me as a harasser, and failed because it is another lie. Game Developers Conference board is complicit, as one of their Directors directly joined in the Cancel Pig campaign.”
“I really don’t like talking about this reporter, but if someone would collect all her tweets about me, I think it would be clear she has been stalking my feed, following, unfollowing, blocking, unblocking. But now she is actively trying to cancel me,” Kern concluded.
Yesterday, a Kotaku reporter called for people to report my account for my April fool’s joke and get me cancelled for it, just like they tried with @kabrutusrambo.
They tried to create a story in community notes painting me as a harasser, and failed because it is another lie.… https://t.co/MkwJNu39BF pic.twitter.com/lv0H2fTfYY
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 2, 2024
Kern’s comments about the Game Developers Conference board being complicit comes after Caroline Marchal, the CEO and Creative Director of Interior/Night who is also a member of the Game Developers Conference Advisory Board, indicated she reported Kern following Mercante’s request.
Marchal responded to Mercante’s now-deleted post writing, “Done!”
Caroline Marchal on X
As for the claim that individuals attempted to paint Kern as a harasser in community notes, this is true. A suggested community note on the April Fool’s joke read, “Whilst an April Fool’s Day joke, Kern is engaging in a continued harassment campaign against Mercante, which under US law, is defined as ‘any repeated or continuing uninvited contact… creating alarm, annoyance, or emotional distress.”
Suggested Community Note on Mark Kern’s April Fool’s joke post
The example the suggested community note cites is Kern showing a screen capture of Mercante noting the joke did not have a date on it.
She’s just a little nervous. It’ll pass. pic.twitter.com/zPtDe0ZwPW
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 1, 2024
What do you make of Mercante calling for her followers to report Mark Kern and describing him, gamers, and Elon Musk as misogynists?
Mark triggered her good. Also that Community Note is pathetic – there are still some cringe feminists at Twitter it seems.
ahh yes i am gay… but I’m marrying a man, two contradicting statements in one sentence. but maybe we are expecting to much from someone clearly unhinged.
AOC International, the monitor maker in Taipei Taiwan? That one tweet from them makes no sense unless they implying that someone is into talking to inanimate objects, and I do get the impression many on Twitter are inanimate entities. lol.
Typical of this person calling on “followers” (must be a pathetic group) to harass this guy. He didn’t do anything to them, you got a problem with him, you deal with it.
“She wrote, “Yes, what is happening to me (and other women on this app) is misogyny. It’s tired, it’s old, it’s boring. They’re mad that I am comfortable in my sexuality, that I once made money off of it, that I’m openly queer and engaged to a man, so they do s**t like this.””
So wait. You are Queer? You are engaged to a man? What kind of doubletalk is this?