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 as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:neo-Nazis, using everything from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Minecraft to Discord to share bigoted material.
According to the study, which focuses on online communities rather th𒁃an the content of games themselves, the industry needs to do more to combat extremism in their games. The study a♑lso shares examples of racist groups openly recruiting on sites such as Discord, clearly using far-right dog whistles that still manage to evade moderators.
comes 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 the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:leaking of military documents, hate crimes, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:real-world violence.
"Extremists ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚare using gaming and ga♏ming-adjacent sites to disseminate radical narratives,
netwo🐓rk with likeminded individuals, mobilize for action, and broadcast their violence," reads the report, c🅷iting 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, individua🔯ls 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 "[continuin🔯g] 🍬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 in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Call of Duty, as well as Nazi and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:ISIS-supporting servers in Roblox and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Minecraft. They also highlight a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:World of Warcraft clan called the Enclave, which was known as a white supremacist group since at least the 2000s. Blizzard has since banned the clan.
On top of political extremism and racism, the rep🧸ort also touches on misogyny. Here, it found tha🌄t 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.