Unite the Right In August 2017, Gorcenski was a
counter-protester at the
Unite the Right rally in her city of residence of
Charlottesville, Virginia. At the
August 11 "torch" rally, she was sprayed in the face with
pepper spray by
white supremacist Christopher Cantwell, who pleaded guilty to charges of assault and was barred from Virginia for 5 years, and was also attacked by
Atomwaffen Division member Vasillios Pistolis. In the wake of her assault at the rally, Gorcenski and one other counter-protester pressed charges against Cantwell, who in turn filed a federal lawsuit against them. In response, Gorcenski and her co-defendant counter-sued Cantwell. In the lawsuit, Gorcenski was repeatedly
misgendered by both Cantwell and his attorney, Elmer Woodard. Woodard's motions to have the court refer to Gorcenski by her pre-transition name (and for the court to use male pronouns) were both denied. Both lawsuits were settled in 2018 with a mutual release of claims. Due to her public opposition to the rally, Gorcenski was harassed online and
doxxed. She told
The Intercept that she had been victim to
transphobic harassment from before the rally in Charlottesville. Gorcenski was
swatted in October 2017 after the rally's organizer
Jason Kessler reportedly doxxed her. Kessler was subsequently arrested, though charges were dismissed when new evidence showed Kessler did not control the account that posted Gorcenski's address. In 2018, due to safety concerns, Gorcenski left Charlottesville for
Berlin, Germany, where she now resides.
Digital activism Gorcenski's experiences at Unite the Right led her to use her skills as a data scientist to help identify and
dox white nationalists and members of the
alt-right engaged in criminal activity. Gorcenski created the website 'First Vigil' to track the trial information of white nationalists and associated individuals. The site uses court documents and other public records. In 2016, Gorcenski criticized the ethics of a study by an independent researcher who released the private information on approximately 70,000 users of the dating website
OkCupid. The study in question was widely panned for being unethical, racist, and a breach of user privacy. Gorcenski covered the issue in a discussion with
Sarah Jeong at Mozfest in 2017. Gorcenski sometimes speaks about the ethics of emerging technology, such as consumer
internet of things devices. In 2016, Gorcenski explored
software quality controls for electronic
voting machines, expressing concern for the apparent lack of mandatory standards. Gorcenski is active on Twitter, and
Business Insider and the
Daily Star have published stories about her 2022 posts on
Elon Musk. During the
George Floyd protests in 2020, Gorcenski launched , a
people's history project to document the removal of statues of historical figures aligned with
white supremacy and colonialism. == Writing ==