Homeland Security Investigating Radicalization and Video Games
The federal government has issued a grant for $699,763 to investigate radicalization in gaming communities. Several investigative entities from terrorism researchers to nonprofits are to tackle the issue of spreading extremism in video games and video game communities. The funding comes from the Department of Homeland Security and is a part of the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program. TVTP Grant Program awards around $20 million to local and state authorities as well as nonprofits and institutions of higher education to establish or enhance capabilities to prevent targeted violence and terrorism.
The funding goes to Middlebury's Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, a research center based in Middlebury College in Vermont, nonprofit Take This, which supports gaming communities and the game industry, and Logically, a company that uses artificial intelligence and experts to reduce harmful and manipulative content online. While many video game communities are amazing, the grant aims to ensure all of them become better by raising societal awareness, increasing media literacy and critical thinking, as well as improving civic engagement.
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Whenever video game communities are targeted by extremist or even terroristic ideas, they affect some of the more vulnerable people in these communities. People are known to experience anger towards video games which likely makes them more prone to extremist influences. Adolescents and young adults are creating meaningful relationships online, and a bad actor can take advantage of this dynamic. According to the DHS brief, the communities have been targets of even terrorist mobilization and
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