The Feds Are Coming for “Extremist” Gamers.

[Touko]

Saw this pop-up on my Google news feed.

Gaming companies are coordinating with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security to root out so-called domestic violent extremist content, according to a new government report. Noting that mechanisms have been established with social media companies to police extremism, the report recommends that the national security agencies establish new and similar processes with the vast gaming industry.


The exact nature of the cooperation between federal agencies and video game companies, which has not been previously reported, is detailed in a new Government Accountability Office report. The report draws on interviews conducted with five gaming and social media companies including Roblox, an online gaming platform; Discord, a social media app commonly used by gamers; Reddit; as well as a game publisher and social media company that asked the GAO to remain anonymous.

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The GAO's investigation, which covers September 2022 to January 2024, was undertaken at the request of the House Homeland Security Committee, which asked the government auditor to examine domestic violent extremists' use of gaming platforms and social media. While there is no federal law that criminalizes domestic violent extremism as a category of crime, since 2019 the U.S. government has employed five domestic terrorism threat categories. These are defined by the FBI and DHS as racial/ethnically motivated violent extremism, anti-government/anti-authority violent extremism, animal rights or environmental violent extremism, abortion-related violent extremism, and all other domestic terror threats.


The GAO study also follows pressure from Congress to top gaming companies to crack down on extremist content. Last March, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., sent letters to gaming companies Valve, Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, Riot Games, Roblox Corp, and Take-Two Interactive demanding that they take actions to police gamers.


"Unlike more traditional social media companies — which in recent years have developed public facing policies addressing extremism, created trust and public safety teams, and released transparency reports — online gaming platforms generally have not utilized these tools," Durbin wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

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The Anti-Defamation League has testified to Congress multiple times about extremists' use of gaming platforms. In 2019, ADL's then-senior vice president of international affairs, Sharon Nazarian, was asked by Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., if gaming platforms "are monitored" and if there's "a way AI can be employed to identify those sorts of conversations."

Nazarian replied that gaming platforms "need to be better regulated."

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More at the Link:

The Feds Are Coming for “Extremist” Gamers

Gaming companies are sharing gamers’ user information with the government to root out so-called domestic violent extremists.

theintercept.com

 

[mael]

Better late than never, only 10 years late.

 

[DrForester]

 

[Zok310]

Going straight for the base of operations too. Between reddit and discord feds should not have a hard time finding these dipshits shitting on top of each other.

 

[whistleklik]

There is nothing wonderful about the FBI manipulating unstable people into committing crimes they would probably never even conceive themselves. Then try to act like heroic upholders of law in the aftermath.

 

[mael]

There is nothing wonderful about the FBI manipulating unstable people into committing crimes they would probably never even conceive themselves. Then try to act like heroic upholders of law in the aftermath.

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Just a reminder that we're nearly on the 10 year anniversary of gamer freaks throwing bomb threats to target someone they didn't like.
There's also a shitload of swatting that's been going for decades now,
really the fbi don't need to do any instigating

These dudes are the friend from this

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dt1qZyXwIM

 

[Entropic]

I'm sure the FBI and DHS has everyone's best interests at heart and will execute its mission competently as always.

 

[Cartwynd]

There is nothing wonderful about the FBI manipulating unstable people into committing crimes they would probably never even conceive themselves. Then try to act like heroic upholders of law in the aftermath.

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Correct post that will nevertheless be ignored. Not only that you will see them spying on pro Palestinian activists etc.

 

[Trey]

I get the distrust of the FBI and other letter organizations, but there is a noted uptick of extremism in gaming communities, and I'm not of the opinion the government's response to that should be nothing. By all reports, the data accumulation is voluntary on the part of the gaming companies.

 

[AwwBubbles]

Good

 

[senj]

I get the distrust of the FBI and other letter organizations, but there is a noted uptick of extremism in gaming communities, and I'm not of the opinion the government's response to that should be nothing. By all reports, the data accumulation is voluntary on the part of the gaming companies.

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Yeah, this. The FBI and government in general has a long history of harassing and attacking left wing and minority organizations while downplaying and often turning a blind eye to right wing extremism. Them actually recognizing the threat of neonazis recruiting on Roblox and maybe actually trying to do something about it finally isn't a bad thing.

 

[DevilPuncher]

On one hand, I do not want to cheer on the feds.

On the other hand, them taking white supremacist gamer weirdo freaks seriously for once is actually a good thing.

 

[Don Fluffles]

These are defined by the FBI and DHS as racial/ethnically motivated violent extremism, anti-government/anti-authority violent extremism, animal rights or environmental violent extremism, abortion-related violent extremism,

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Sounds like an excuse to go after nonviolent progressive activists. GOPigs REALLY want to make "pro-abortion rights terrorism" a real thing.

 

[Rippa]

That's a good thing!👏🏼

 

[lori]

aight but when are they cleaning up steam? i see they sent the letter at some point but valve has needed to get their act straight for a WHILE

you can literally go buy Sex With Hitler 2 on their storefront right now

"gamergate 2" is organizing there

 

[VariantX]

I'd prefer the damn platforms not letting these groups proliferate on their platforms and use them as a recruiting tool. I don't have much trust for the Feds not abusing their powers.

 

[GillianSeed79]

I mean, obviously, it's good to have a healthy distrust of the feds, within reason, but I'm all for the feds cracking down on right-wing extremist on any platform that threatens or harasses people.

Like I find it f-ing insane that you can go on say, Twitter or X, any day of the week and right-wing gamer chuds casually throw out death threats without repercussion and target people simply for existing. I mean just the other day I saw someone post a badly photoshopped picture of snipers on top of a GameStop with the quote "gamers never forget" in the comments of someone I follow in reference to the GamerGate 2.0 thing going on.

And that's just comments. I can't imagine being a member of a marginalized group who has had to put up with doxxing, swatting, harassing phone calls, etc.

 

['3y Kingdom]

Sounds good. Glad someone's taking it seriously.

 

[Blackbird]

finally

 

[Nida]

Please go after Steam. Full Steam ahead.

 

[Anya7890]

 

[Morgan_LeFaye]

Call me a cynick, but I just cannot bring myself to imagine anything worth a damn ever coming from this..... -_-

 

[Cow Mengde]

Please go after Steam. Full Steam ahead.

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This. I've been saying that people need to be careful with their kids online these days. There are already stories from former KKK people saying they've been using games to recruit young people.

 

[Mocha Joe]

literally fbi just needs to look at some of the steam groups and go from there

 

[dannymate]

These are defined by the FBI and DHS as racial/ethnically motivated violent extremism, anti-government/anti-authority violent extremism, animal rights or environmental violent extremism, abortion-related violent extremism, and all other domestic terror threats.

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All of these have "violent extremism" as a common thread here. No idea why they'd even have to create subgroups. The USA is well known for cracking down on right wing extremism and not wasting resources manufacturing it anywhere else.

I worry that they'll be using this as an excuse to harvest information from people outside the USA as well.

 

[Wil Grieve]

Nazi gamers fuck off.

 

[Fachasaurus]

The pros of this may outweigh the massive cons.

But I do feel like they're gonna fuck this up in one enormous way or another.

 

[kamineko]

I mean, they're always going to harass progressives. Always have. If they want to go after GG2 shitlords while they're at it, that's better than not doing it.

Those categories in the OP aren't super encouraging, though.

 

[ShroudOfFate]

As with every 'crackdown on extremism' this 100% means they'll 'monitor' and do less than zero to right wing pieces of shit that talk about overthrowing the government or committing heinous crimes (see Jan 6) and they'll use every ounce of this newfound power to shut down left wing organizing or thought. Because that's all the US government has ever done.

 

[Nida]

literally fbi just needs to look at some of the steam groups and go from there

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They are being so brash about it. It should be easy to know who they are.

 

[blueredandgold]

I once had the "pleasure" of not only being online in such a manner with probably THE poster child for this sort of awful behaviour (if his long presence on social media acting as the damn mouthpiece for the Extreme Far Right since who knows when is anything to go by) - but also emoting back and forth in the same Animal Crossing 3DS dance club as him.

One of my more surreal gaming experiences.

No I won't name the fellow.

 

[Perzeval]

So they're about to git gud?

 

[Sign My Guestbook!]

Knowing the speed of these things, this should've happened about six or seven years ago.

 

[krazen]

There is nothing wonderful about the FBI manipulating unstable people into committing crimes they would probably never even conceive themselves. Then try to act like heroic upholders of law in the aftermath.

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I mean, the feds absolutely did this to an egregious level post 9-11. But that was easy because no one cares about poor brown or black folks.

But the festering white supremacist/incel movement taking places in those halls that they've largely ignored because many of them share the same views (Feds), its been needed. Atomwaffen's whole footprint in the US was built off gamer bro's.

 

[Dice]

 

[Mesoian]

doubt.jpg

I'm sure they'll use "extreme gamers" as a method to create new legislation into prying open a way to force tech companies to reveal private information they'd otherwise be unable to get, but let's be real. They haven't done anything about this behavior on totally public sites where people are outing violent dangerous behavior for free. They won't do anything meaningful here.

 

[ultraluna]

So they're about to git gud?

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they're about to level up

 

[Nazo]

Yeah, in a perfect world this would be good news but this sounds just like yet another excuse to put the general populace deeper into the surveillance state we're already in. You can't convince me the systems that benefit most from these extremists are actually going to do anything meaningful about them and not just use this to oppress minority groups at bare minimum.

 

[Twohearts]

While I have no love for the FBI or any other branch of policing, I do feel that considering we are 10 years out from gamergate and seem to be on the verge of a gamergate 2, there is needed accountability for more extrimist gamers so we don't get into bombthreat territory again.
The image of "GamerCops" however is moderately amusing to me

 

[Entropic]

As with every 'crackdown on extremism' this 100% means they'll 'monitor' and do less than zero to right wing pieces of shit that talk about overthrowing the government or committing heinous crimes (see Jan 6) and they'll use every ounce of this newfound power to shut down left wing organizing or thought. Because that's all the US government has ever done.

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Bingo.

The FBI is a bandwidth limiter. It'll do the bare minimum against white supremacy to gain mainstream liberal acceptance and accolades, but focus most of its energies on marginalized groups and movements. Because institutionally it is meant to defend entrenched interests.

Anyone remember the hero Robert Mueller? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Let's keep ballooning the surveillance state's purview. Surely it'll never get wielded against us.

 

[Zetta]

 

[Xeonidus]

It's about time they took this seriously. Should have started loooong ago. I'm willing to bet Trump would never have become president if they looked into this ages ago.

 

[Entropic]

I would be remiss if I missed an opportunity to deploy this stupid gif in a thread that's built for it though:

The drama and victim complex when the first racist moron gets tagged by the feds might be amusing.

 

[Did You Like It?]

My definition of game extremists are the ones that buy a wheel and pedals to play driving games.

 

[Mattmo831]

My definition of game extremists are the ones that buy a wheel and pedals to play driving games.

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[Cheesetriangles]

No one should be cheering this on. The history of the American police state is not a good one.

 

[massoluk]

God damn finally?

 

[SirKai]

This 100% feels motivated by the pro-Palestine mentality amongst younger folks, just like the incoming TikTok ban.

 

[Transistor]

I get the distrust of the FBI and other letter organizations, but there is a noted uptick of extremism in gaming communities, and I'm not of the opinion the government's response to that should be nothing. By all reports, the data accumulation is voluntary on the part of the gaming companies.

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100%

 

[UAZ-469]

Flawed as it may be, it's better than doing nothing. Time and time again we've seen that a hands-off approach online only benefits the extreme right in the end.