He would help him earn money from the online game and he in return would give him a percentage of that to fund the fight of Islamist organizations in Africa. This was the personal message an 18-year-old in Athens received from a stranger from Southeast Asia with whom he participated in an online platform gaming. The “invitation” had not come as a bolt from the blue. There had been previous messages from the unknown person to all the 18-year-old’s group, in which he advertised the match Islamists organizations against governments in Africa.
The scientists spent about 150 hours in five Internet cafes in different areas of Athens, during which they carefully observed young people playing on online gaming platforms.
This was perhaps the most extreme case of recruitment identified by the scientists of ELIAMEP, who for three years have been investigating ways in which extremist groups reach young people through online gaming within the framework of the European program GEMS – The Online Gaming Ecosystem as a Complex Security Challenge.
For this purpose, the scientists spent about 150 hours in five internet cafes in different areas in Athens, during which they carefully observed young people playing on online gaming platforms. Alongside the observation, they conducted 30 in-depth interviews and worked with IT companies and police authorities throughout Europe.
From the game to Telegram
As they reveal, there is a specific pattern of approaching young people through specific platforms. In his statements to “K”, the researcher Blender Feta describes extremists, camouflaged as gamers, reaching young people through chats in online games (mainly Discord and Roblox). There, some first extremist ideas are communicated in the form of humor. These are racist, misogynistic and largely anti-Semitic messages that are normalized by extremists as they are usually translated into loose comments or even icons.
Once the extremists identify the most receptive players, they approach them about the game, establish familiarity, and then invite them to encrypted messaging applications such as groups on Telegram and Signal. This is where their “hard recruitment” by groups or individuals who express far-right or even far-left ideas, even religious extremism, begins. Through the closed groups in these applications, they can be asked to participate in actions or fund “the fight”. As Mr. Feta points out, this action constitutes 1%-2% of gaming, these are purely isolated incidents and the entire gaming community should not be targeted because of these examples.
Because through gaming
Mr. Feta explains that online gaming platforms lend themselves to this kind of recruitment because the game provides opportunities for both discussion and cooperation and building trust. As the researcher analyzes, the one who wants to approach the young person will give him some of his “booty” in the game or offer him some solutions to get more points to win.
At the same time, the game facilitates discussions around hate speech and strongly anti-systemic discourse. “Leave the women, they’re ruining our game” or “gaming is not made for women” are some of the misogynist comments one can read in chat about female gamers. Some others will react to the diversity of the game’s characters, opening a debate about the enforcement of the woke agenda and specific standards by the European Union – which promotes the existence of characters from different nationalities, races and genders. “OR criticism towards the perceived “woke culture” in gaming often evolved into anti-Semitic conspiracy narratives. It is important to emphasize that hate speech can become a daily practice within some communities,” the scientists noted in the conclusions of their analysis through observation in gaming cafes.
When I told him that the mafia can kill a man, he replied: “His death is my survival.” We are talking about a kid who is only 19 years old.
Extremists nurture and feed off of these ideas, which they normalize, amplify, and then use as bridges to build relationships with players. “What shocked me is that the extremist groups communicate with organized crime,” Mr. Fetta stressed, underlining that through the discussions and comments of the extremists impersonating the players, an idealization of reactionary and delinquent groups that reach up to organized crime is built. He characteristically recalled the case of a 19-year-old player, a fan of the Far Right, who described to him how he trusts neither the institutions nor the state, but he trusts the delinquent groups. “When I told him that the mafia can kill a man, he replied: ‘His death is my survival.’ We are talking about a child who is only 19 years old.”
The team of scientists found differences between users of the five gaming cafes, saying young people from lower-income areas were more vulnerable to extremist rhetoric.
A guide for children and teachers
One of the goals of the program, as the researcher pointed out, is to educate young people and then increase the players’ own reports of the existence of extreme elements. Complaints can be made, among others, to the Hellenic Center for Safe Internet, the Technology and Research Foundation in Crete. As the coordinator mentioned, Paraskevi Francopoulos, the center has received many complaints to date of attempted seduction of minors through gaming but not of attempted recruitment by extremist groups.
The European program will issue a guide for children and teachers, through which they can be informed so that they can more easily distinguish which players are reaching out with the aim of promoting specific radical ideologies and recruiting. “Understanding the risks is only the first step. In complex digital ecosystems, prevention cannot rely solely on containment. It must be based on literacy and the strengthening of community standards that make the harmful dynamics of development and escalation socially unsustainable,” stressed Vasiliki Kotsikopoulospolicy advisor in Research Education and Technology Issues.
The full conclusions and good practice guide will be presented at an information event entitled “Behind and Beyond Gaming: Understanding the Risks of Extremism in Online Gaming Spaces”, on Thursday 18 June, from 15.00 to 17.00 (arrival time 14.30) at the Experience Europe Center (Stadium 44-46).
