The Feds Are Coming for “Extremist” Gamers - eviltoast
  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      Are they honestly okay with putting “Social hierarchies based on […] race or gender” in writing?

    • BossDj@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

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

      • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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        8 months ago

        Anarchy has stood for those things since its inception.

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

        • BossDj@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          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.

    • a lil bee 🐝@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      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.

        • a lil bee 🐝@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          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.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    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…

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    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?

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

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

      Just enough to say they did and no more.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    8 months ago

    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!

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

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

      i’m sure that’d be done fairly

      • SoupBrick@yiffit.net
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        8 months ago

        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.

        • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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          8 months ago

          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