"Zoom out: Mainstream social media apps focus on elevating content publicly, making them ideal for spreading ideologies, rumors or disinformation. But often of those ideas have their roots in smaller forums on gaming platforms. Extremist groups that have been booted from mainstream platforms have found new homes in gaming and gaming-adjacent spaces. Unlike public-facing apps like Instagram and TikTok, users of these apps are much more accustomed to using pseudo-identities to connect, making it easier to share radical and taboo ideas anonymously."
"Smaller chat rooms where harmful conversations unfold are typically sealed off. "Most researchers are basically blind to all of this. You can't enter these rooms," Rosenblat says. Users also exploit the gaming context, using "gamespeak" to mask extreme or dangerous ideas - blurring the line between play and reality. The platforms themselves can access this content, but finding it is like searching for a drop in the ocean - and most haven't invested enough in safeguards or moderation to protect young people, Rosenblat notes."
Mainstream social media apps elevate content publicly, enabling rapid spread of ideologies, rumors, and disinformation, while many such ideas originate in smaller gaming forums. Extremist groups expelled from mainstream platforms have migrated into gaming and gaming-adjacent spaces that favor pseudonymous interaction. Gaming-focused architecture and closed, highly-engaged chat rooms allow extremists and predators to target susceptible young people seeking connection. Users employ "gamespeak" to mask extreme ideas and blur play with reality. Most harmful conversations occur in sealed rooms hidden from researchers and casual oversight. Platforms can technically access these spaces, but discovering problematic content is difficult and moderation investment is often inadequate, leaving youth at risk.
Read at Axios
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]