The Feds Are Coming for “Extremist” Gamers

HLMenckenFan@lemmy.worldmod to politics @lemmy.world – 71 points –
Will Aaron Bushnell’s Death Trigger Anarchism Witch Hunt?
theintercept.com
31

An internal FBI threat advisory obtained by The Intercept defines Anarchist Violent Extremists as individuals “who consider capitalism and centralized government to be unnecessary and oppressive,” and “oppose economic globalization; political, economic, and social hierarchies based on class, religion, race, gender, or private ownership of capital; and external forms of authority represented by centralized government, the military, and law enforcement.”

Guess I’m on another list because I agree with all of that.

Are they honestly okay with putting "Social hierarchies based on [...] race or gender" in writing?

The result of none of that is the same as anarchy, violence, nor extremism

Anarchy has stood for those things since its inception.

Who taught you that it means violence and lawlessness? Maybe they have an agenda?

I don't know what you're trying to say.

I said the FBI definition of "violent anarchist extremists" doesn't properly define violent, anarchist, or extremists.

And Semi-Hemi-Demigod is trying to explain to you that, while you're of course right that none of those things are symptoms of violent extremism, a lot of them are aspects of peaceful anti-authoritarian political beliefs such as those of anarchism.

I would read this as "Of the types of violent extremists, the 'Anarchist' type are those who... ". As a really dumb metaphor, if I have a pokedex, I don't need to restate that they're all Pokémon in there each time.

I'm not sure that your interpretation gels with the FBI's historical behavior. The organization literally tried to get MLK Jr. to kill himself.

Not arguing that the FBI hasn't suppressed completely valid movements in the past, because that's well-documented for anyone to see. I just think that if I was a professional writing a handbook in this situation, I wouldn't go to the trouble of redefining the context each time either. Because of that, I'm not sure that this is demonstrative of their stance.

Roblox? Are there that many radicalized 8 year olds?

Have you met many 8 year olds? They are all fucking radicals. I’d say at least half are terrorists.

That’s a preexisting condition though, 8 year olds have always been menaces to the rest of us

Surely this will be an article about the FBI finally cutting down on Nazis and right-wing extremists in The Gaming Community right? Right? Oh..

Huh, I wonder how much they'll focus on the right wing aspect of that. Or are they both-sidesing the animal activists, giving that equal weight to alt-right fascists?

Huh, I wonder how much they’ll focus on the right wing aspect of that.

Just enough to say they did and no more.

No

I'm afraid that's not a very strong legal defense.

Its not a legal defense, its a warning. We all like our fingers, be a shame is some of us lost em.

Warning of what? Gamergate-types not supporting Biden?

Not necessarily gamer gate types, I dont trust the FBI to keep it to just them. Wouldnt put it past em to go after anarchists for example. But if they can keep it to gamer gate types they can keep their fingers.

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Gaming companies are coordinating with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security to root out so-called domestic violent extremist content, according to a new government report.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have mechanisms to share and receive domestic violent extremism threat-related information with social media and gaming companies,” the GAO says.

“All I can think of is the awful track record of the FBI when it comes to identifying extremism,” Hasan Piker, a popular Twitch streamer who often streams while playing video games under the handle HasanAbi, says of the mechanisms.

The GAO’s investigation, which covers September 2022 to January 2024, was undertaken at the request of the House Homeland Security Committee, which asked the government auditor to examine domestic violent extremists’ use of gaming platforms and social media.

A 2019 internal intelligence assessment jointly produced by the FBI, DHS, the Joint Special Operations Command, and the National Counterterrorism Center and obtained by The Intercept warns that “violent extremists could exploit functionality of popular online gaming platforms and applications.” The assessment lists half a dozen U.S.-owned gaming platforms that it identifies as popular, including Blizzard Entertainment’s Battle.net, Fortnite, Playstation Xbox Live, Steam, and Roblox.

In 2019, ADL’s then-senior vice president of international affairs, Sharon Nazarian, was asked by Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., if gaming platforms “are monitored” and if there’s “a way AI can be employed to identify those sorts of conversations.”


The original article contains 1,138 words, the summary contains 239 words. Saved 79%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

a way AI can be employed to identify those sorts of conversations.

i'm sure that'd be done fairly

My bet: They're probably going to initially go after some actual problem accounts, then once they got the PR out, immediately start using it for bad faith surveillance.

Let me raise that: they have already been doing this for years if not decades, and it's just a convenient PR stunt that they are doing now so they can do it more openly