51 percent of gamers who played online games last year were exposed to extremist rhetoric. This is according to new research into how the gaming community is being used to spread extremism, with groups, such asneo-Nazis, using everything fromMinecrafttoDiscordto share bigoted material.
According to the study, which focuses on online communities rather than the content of games themselves, the industry needs to do more to combat extremism in their games. The study also shares examples of racist groups openly recruiting on sites such as Discord, clearly using far-right dog whistles that still manage to evade moderators.
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This researchcomes courtesy of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, a research and advocacy group attached to a business school. It says that the purpose of the report is to give context to recent high-profile stories involving the gaming community, such as theleaking of military documents, hate crimes, andreal-world violence.
“Extremists are using gaming and gaming-adjacent sites to disseminate radical narratives,
network with likeminded individuals, mobilize for action, and broadcast their violence,” reads the report, citing examples of real-world violence such as the Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand.
“These radical narratives are having grave real-world consequences…51 percent of all gamers surveyed had come across extremist statements or narratives, and 36 percent had experienced acute harassment while playing online multiplayer games in the last year,” the report continues. “In the most extreme instances, individuals radicalized in gaming sites have committed horrific acts of mass violence, including recent shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Highland Park, Illinois.”
In relation to this, Discord is highlighted for “[continuing] to host easily detectable, explicitly violent chatrooms among its private servers.”
The examples shared in the report come from games too, not just gamer-adjacent sites. For example, the researchers found violently antisemitic language inCall of Duty, as well as Nazi andISIS-supporting serversinRobloxandMinecraft. They also highlight aWorld of Warcraftclan called the Enclave, which was known as a white supremacist group since at least the 2000s.Blizzardhas since banned the clan.
On top of political extremism and racism, the report also touches on misogyny. Here, it found that around 20 percent of gamers have come across players who argue that women are inferior to men. Further still, 15 percent of respondents under the age 18 who have experienced abuse online say this came in the form of sexual harassment.
In response to the research, Discord commented: “Hate has no place on Discord and we are committed to combating violence and extremism of any kind.” It remains to be seen if enacts any further policies to combat extremism on its service, although much of the material found in the report would go against existing terms and conditions.
