The top gaming companies in the US have been asked to respond to a letter (published by Axios) from US lawmakers about their efforts to prevent online extremism. Despite the apparent increase in the popularity of the online gaming industry, harassment and extremism remain a problem in the community. The recent inquiry from members of Congress may, however, prompt major companies like Activision Blizzard, Epic, Sony, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and others to introduce more comprehensive protective measures. Even though lawmakers acknowledge that the vast majority of gamers don’t have an issue playing online, they have expressed concern that video games are facilitating the spread of “hate, harassment, and extremism.” Particularly alarming to them is information that white supremacist speech in video games has increased by 100% since last year. By January 9, 2023, the companies are required to present a plan for tackling this. Even though there have been previous attempts made to address this problem, it will be interesting to see how these companies will deal with it in the future. One more thing to keep in mind is that the letter wasn’t addressed to the companies that had the most scale but rather the companies that had the games that had the most users, so it went to the companies that had the most popular games. Share with us what you think about the measure that the authorities have taken in this regard.
