Radicalization Through Gaming

Online gaming retains a significant position in the entertainment industries that gained great attention and revenue from worldwide platforms and digital communities. The industry of online gaming is already valued at US$ 137.6 billion in 2023-2024, which is projected to touch US$ 349 billion by 2032. Multinational companies, tech giants, and state governments are now focusing on making it easier for the online gaming industry to bring in money and provide other economic benefits. However, it is important to remember that the platforms and channels used in this industry pose security risks to states and communities on a larger scale. Many of the most common threats from these kinds of platforms come in the form of radical propaganda, recruitment, getting young people to commit violent acts by offering money or other incentives, praising extremists for their great gaming skills, or using racist or abusive language towards certain groups. Most of these factors have historically been associated with extremist and terrorist groups, such as Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or other radical Islamist organisations.

Violent extremists, hate-mongering actors, and terrorist facilitators or sympathisers exploit the spaces of online gaming through different techniques; the most common approach is the development of communities on platforms like “Discord,” one of the online communication platforms built for computer gamers or young tech experts. Similarly, extremist tendencies eventually influence online communities on console platforms like Xbox and PlayStation through their connections to Twitch or YouTube. In the past, one could analyse the fact that terrorist organisations like Al Qaeda used chat rooms for leading online games, including Counter Strike, a first-person shooting game, or games under the banner of “Call of Duty,” to conduct their operational and extremist activities. It is already covered in research studies and reports by think tanks like “Global Network on Extremism and Technology” that the terrorist behind the brutal attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, known as Brenton Tarrant, was also inspired by gaming and ‘incel’ culture. His profile and activities before the relevant incident on “8chan,” an online imageboard website, provided evidence of how symbolism and different missions in online and offline gaming made him commit such a deadly crime.

Games produced under Call of Duty had also been used by cyber experts or extremists linked to ISIL/ISIS during their surge in the middle of the 2010s decade across the Middle East. They used online gaming platforms not only for conducting simulations of their practical activities but also to focus on grasping the attention of those younger targets who would be inspired by adventurism, aggressive content, and manoeuvres to join ISIS or conduct terrorist activities for the group in their own respective states. ISIS’s recruitment and propaganda techniques have also inspired other smaller terrorist and militant groups to adopt similar strategies, primarily targeting males between the ages of 14 and 26. A video game, “Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” available on online gaming purchase platforms like Steam, had also been criticised for glorifying violence and terrorist activities. The game shows Palestinian resistance groups conducting attacks on Israeli targets and promotes an anti-Semitic sentiment. At the same time, terrorist organisations operating across the Middle East and Africa had also used the game for propaganda purposes, rallying their support under the banner of aligning with the Palestinian cause.

It was also reported in 2011 that online and offline games, including World of Warcraft, Sniper: Ghost Warrior, and Counter-Strike, radicalised and pushed a far-right, white supremacist terrorist, Anders B. Breivik, in Norway to commit two of the major terrorist attacks. The attacks encompassed car bombings and mass shootings that was strapped on the basis of ideological prospects of “White Genocide,” Great Replacement Theory, and Neo-Fascism with the getting of tendencies of violence and committing such a heinous crime through adopting skills from online gaming. It was also reported that Breivik was able to learn about using holographic sights on weapons through analysis and gaming skills acquired from relevant games, which eventually further motivated him towards such a step. These factors highlight an important point: online gaming can promote extremism and terror violence, posing significant risks to international security beyond specific regions. Even the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism had stressed the point that the appealing natures of shooting and violent games had the potential to imply consequences for the youth on a global level when it comes to the dissemination of extremist tendencies.

States should focus on both reactive and proactive measures to counter or restrict the security risks emerging from e-sports or online gaming platforms. One can determine an example from the collaboration between the United States E-Sports Association and important government institutions in America, including the Department of Homeland Security and potential research centres, to develop strategies and resilience in those platforms where online gaming is conducted for the prevention of promotion of terrorist sympathisers and extremist tendencies. Such measures are considered under the realms of human-computer interactions as well as media and literacy platforms across some of the potential educational institutes that not only focus on dealing with such issues inside the United States but also focus on international collaborations. Ultimately, focus on aspects that help mobilise youth and online gaming communities to refrain from actors or activities that make them follow certain radical ideologies or trends. The Global Network on Extremism and Technology had also broadly stressed the point that policy options for the prevention of violent extremism and sentiments encouraging terrorist violence can be done through narrative-based interventions by practitioners as well as academics, along with technology companies, to deal with such an issue on an international level. Similarly, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based technologies can also provide help in deploying those moderations or programs that can counter the promotion of harmful and xenophobic languages along with aspects that promote radical and extremist ideologies. To deal with this problem on a global scale, it’s important to note that policy options for stopping violent extremism and ideas that lead to violence can be found in narrative-based interventions by practitioners, academics, and tech companies. Similarly, [Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based technologies can also provide help in deploying those moderations or programs that can counter the promotion of harmful and xenophobic languages along with aspects that promote radical and extremist ideologies.

Syed Haris Shah

The writer is a graduate of Peace and Conflict Studies from the National Defence University, Islamabad.

• Syed Haris Shah

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