Seven members of Congress will write to the heads of 15 video game publishers on Friday asking how they respond to and mitigate harassing and extremist behavior in their online communities.
A draft of the letter, published Thursday evening by Axios, cites the latest Anti-Defamation League (ADL) report “Hate and Harassment in Online Gaming” to express the concerns of lawmakers. The ADL has published a study on extremist and toxic behaviors online annually since 2019. The current report, released Dec. 6, says that “[a]An estimated 2.3 million teenagers have been exposed to “white supremacist ideology,” in online video games and the Madden NFL series.
“We’re writing to better understand the processes you have in place to handle reports of harassment and extremist encounters in your online games,” say the seven lawmakers, all Democrats. “Authorities around the world, including the US Department of Homeland Security and the European Radicalization Awareness Network, are taking note and launching investigations into how extremists are using online gaming spaces to radicalize young people.”
US lawmakers call for action after Taylor Swift ticket controversy
Nicola Roberts responds to government’s online hate law: ‘Everyone should unite and report abuse’
Axios said the letter will be sent Friday to corporate management at Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Microsoft, Riot Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, Tencent, Ubisoft, Valve Corp. and manufacturers. by, andNotably, Nintendo of America was not included.
Lawmakers are asking the companies what data they collect “on in-game player reporting mechanisms and automatic bans for inappropriate behavior” and whether they would consider “publishing that data in regular transparency reports.” They also ask companies how they identify “extremist content in their games” and whether they have policies in place to address it.
Your letter is not a subpoena or subpoena before a committee. But Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Massachusetts) told Axios that “parents like me with young children will be watching how they respond.”
The latest ADL report states that only Roblox Corp. “has an explicit, public-facing policy against extremism.” On transparency, he notes that Microsoft last month released its first report on online moderation, the behaviors reported and observed on Xbox Live, and the actions taken in response.
Otherwise, “hate and extremism in online gaming has gotten worse” since the 2020 report, the ADL says. “For the fourth consecutive year, already high rates of harassment experienced by a nationally representative sample of nearly 100 million U.S. adult gamers have increased.” The 2022 report notes that it has now collected data on “bullying experienced by adolescents aged 10-12”.
The report said the shooter accused of the May 14 mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket professed white nationalist sympathies and attributed his radicalization to a player-made platform game “Blood and Iron.” That game, released in 2009, recreates the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century and references a speech given by Prussian President Otto von Bismarck 50 years later, calling for the unification of the German states.
The report and letter also follow a New York Times story published Wednesday that the man who assaulted and seriously injured the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Oct. 22 wrote that he was radicalized by Gamergate, the right-wing online movement born in 2014 that continues as a backlash against diversity and inclusion in video games and other pop culture media.
