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Not Just a Game
Extremists access gaming channels to indoctrinate young people with their ideology. Some new tools help identify them online and off.
It’s no secret that social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube host accounts, which cater to extremist and white supremacist ideology, sometimes even nakedly branding their accounts as such. Some extremists, however, go to greater lengths to disguise their recruitment efforts by sharing information within online channels devoted to the gaming community—effectively hiding in plain sight.
This 2018 NPR piece detailed how white supremacists infiltrate live gaming, for example, where they can approach kids (children under the age of 18) in chat rooms, livestreams and other channels to recruit them to right-wing extremism. NPR described how one father found his 15-year-old son in possession of a neo-Nazi book. His son had been directed to extremist material after conversing with other players online, possibly live (out loud) or in a chat room for Counterstrike gamers. Chat rooms are often free and hosted by platforms like Discord. They can be private and moderation can depend on the whims and the standards of whoever created them.
These efforts by extremists are well-known enough that last year the United Nations Office of…
