Gaining Steam: Far-Right Radicalisation on Gaming
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In the entertainment industry, gaming has become the most profitable business, surpassing both music and film production. According to estimates by the gaming market data company Newzoo, there are over 2.8 billion gamers worldwide, a majority of whom are in the age range of 16-24. Whereas the gaming industry has its own economic and social benefits, it also has shown signs of becoming a platform for spreading extremism. The intersection of video games and violent extremism has recently gained greater traction in global counterterrorism policy circles. Gaming platforms such as Steam, Twitch, DLive, and more are aiming to provide their users with the best experience online and an environment to connect with like-minded individuals. However, these same motives are often exploited by extremist organisations.
Video games and their associated platforms are vastly becoming hubs of radicalisation, extremism and recruitment by far-right extremist organisations. The development of bespoke games and modifications, often known as MODs, has given extremist organisations the ability to further spread their digital propaganda. While Valve Corporation, a software company that develops and distributes video games, has provided gamers worldwide with the Steam platform to experience the best gaming environment, the threat of radical networks exploiting the platform remains high. According to ISD, “two Steam groups were expressly affiliated with violent extremist groups. One of these is a group affiliated with the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM). The NRM was connected to a series of bombings in Gothenburg in 2016 and 2017.” This demonstrates how Steam can further be implicated in heinous terrorist campaigns.
The issue of far-right radicalisation on Steam presents a danger not only for the company repute, but to the greater security of the world around. This Insight offers a nuanced understanding of far-right radicalisation through community groups on Steam and provides recommendations to address the issue.
Far-right radicalisation under the current gaming landscape
The debates surrounding the intersection of video games and extremism highlight three important aspects to be aware of, particularly as it pertains to the far-right. First, the way far-right groups use gaming platforms as traditional social networking websites to connect with like-minded individual users; second, the kind of games being produced and supported by the far-right organisations; and third, themes of extremism, radicalisation, fund-raising and recruitment employed by these groups.
One aspect of extremist exploitation of gaming platforms is the “top-down” and “bottom-up” gamification. The top-down gamification refers to the community groups made by extremist organisations and awarding their users for supporting and spreading digital propaganda, eventually earning in-group hierarchical awards. On the other hand, the bottom-up approach refers to the ‘organic’ subculture that develops through individual users by quoting gaming language over real-life trolling or extremist actions. Steam has the highest and most diverse number of community groups related to far-right extremism.
In terms of the material and content available on these gaming platforms, there is evidence of far-right propaganda available in huge amounts. The materials include books, videos, documents, manifestos, memes and more. Even on other platforms apart from Steam, interviews of far-right leaders, such as Andrew Anglin, are available for users. In addition to the overt strategic extremist activism, there is more casual material available too, including memes, xenophobic content, and overtly pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler content, often categorised as “shitposting.”
The gaming industry, as described earlier, has approximately 2.8 billion users, which presents a massive target audience for radicalisation, especially the youth majority that is more easily susceptible to such extremist content. The anonymity of the online ecosystem, built on encrypted mechanisms (links to Telegram groups) and hardly traceable modes of communication (audio/video chat), allows far-right organisations to overtly disseminate their propaganda for radicalisation and recruitment. Additionally, the gaming subculture could be adopted by far-right organisations to lure young gamers into their extremist worldviews.
Furthermore, research suggests that far-right organisations often use these platforms to build community and thus help their members reinforce their far-right radical views. These communities often organise events and matches for their members and wider gamers who could be exposed to radical propaganda either through in-game voice chats or other materials described above. These tournaments often exhibit xenophobic requirements in terms of who can join them, such as no women, no people of colour, and generally no minorities.
Content retrieved from: https://gnet-research.org/2024/07/29/gaining-steam-far-right-radicalisation-on-gaming-platforms/.
