Digital Playgrounds: How Extremists Exploit Gaming-Adjacent Platforms
A study highlights gaming-adjacent platforms like Steam, Discord, and Twitch as recruitment hubs for extremists, targeting impressionable users. The research emphasizes how lack of regulation and complex platform nature facilitate extremist content dissemination and calls for improved moderation and updated policies to combat this threat.
- Country:
- India
A recent study, published in Frontiers of Psychology, has revealed that gaming-adjacent platforms such as Steam, Discord, and Twitch are becoming recruitment hubs for extremist groups. These platforms allow users to chat and livestream during gameplay, making them attractive gateways for recruitment and radicalization, particularly among young and impressionable audiences.
Anglia Ruskin University senior research fellow, William Allchorn, underscored that these platforms offer extremists direct access to large audiences. The study notes the pressing moderation challenges these platforms face, allowing extremist ideologies, including far-right extremism and conspiracy theories, to proliferate.
Despite efforts from third-party policing communities, their impact is undermined by the networked and adaptive nature of extremism. The study calls for enhanced moderation systems and policy updates to tackle harmful yet technically lawful content.
(With inputs from agencies.)
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