State of Play: Reviewing the Literature on Gaming & Extremism. An Annotated Bibliography A Product of the Extremism and Gaming Research Network. “The Extremism and Gaming Research Network (EGRN) brings together world-leading counter-extremism organizations to develop insights and solutions for the exploitation of online gaming by violent extremist organizations. Violent extremist organizations are actively exploiting online gaming across the world. However, there is limited understanding of the ways in which games and gaming-related spaces may be manipulated to radicalize vulnerable individuals and groups. The Extremism and Research Gaming Network intends to evidence the ways in which gaming is used by malign actors for harm, as well as opportunities to counter this misuse by using gaming for good in fostering resilient online communities…

Violent extremist organizations are actively exploiting the surge in online gaming during the global COVID-19 pandemic. From neo-Nazis and far-right groups to ISIS, those seeking to instigate hate and violence for their ideological ends are finding new platforms to do so as traditional social media platforms crack down on their content (Radicalization Awareness Network, 2020). Games per se are not at fault here. Rather, new platforms, including the chat app Discord and ive-streaming site Twitch, online games like Fortnite, and gaming platforms such as Steam, are rife with socialization opportunities exploited by extremist content and recruiters (Gais and Hayden, 2020). Newer messaging apps favored by gamers such as Discord can have up to “20 percent more monthly active users than social media” (Hay, 2018). Small wonder that radical and violent extremist organizations have sought to take advantage of younger audiences moving away from traditional social media platforms to alternatives. Yet as enforcement efforts step on Discord, Twitch, and DLive, even less policed options including Trovo and Odysee are meeting the needs of de-platformed extremist talking heads. Games and pervasive gaming-linked online chat systems are an integral part of new social media: as such there is a pressing need to assess the extent to which these platforms are being used by extremist organizations today, and in which ways…”