Playing for Hate? Extremism, Terrorism, and Videogames

Abstract

Although the production of videogames by extremist and terrorist groups has markedly declined since a high point in the 2000s, game-based interventions remain highly significant, whether through the adoption of gaming-based iconography in extremist and terrorist social media campaigns or through the activity of modders and groups’ supporters who continue to make games championing extremists and terrorists. Building on Conway’s 2017 call to look anew at the nexus between violent extremism, terrorism, and the internet, we problematize existing work on the use of videogames by extremists and terrorists. First, we argue that research needs to move beyond viewing games as tools for recruitment: seeing videogames as sources of propaganda that work to reinforce the views of those already empathetic to and/or attuned to a group’s messages significantly expands our understanding of the interrelationship between players and extremist and terrorist videogames. Second, we argue that the present literature – whilst impressive – has overly privileged the “reading” of in-game representations, at the expense of attention to the central role of interactive gameplay in promoting the strategic communication and propaganda aims of a group. It is through the undertaking of in-game actions that a player comes to experience a group’s values and aims. Research on videogames, extremism and terrorism is at a nascent stage – this article seeks to provoke further thinking and open up spaces for debate in this crucial, yet under-studied, area.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Grace Panetta, “Trump Incorrectly Blames ‘Gruesome Video Games’ and ‘Mentally ill Monsters’ for Mass Violence While Commenting on 2 Mass Shootings,” Business Insider, last modified 5 August 2019, https://www.businessinsider.nl/trump-blames-shootings-video-games-mental-illness-white-supremacy-2019-8/ (accessed 22 September 2020).

2 On Special Force, see, for example, Helga Tawil Souri, “The Political Battlefield of Pro-Arab Video Games on Palestinian Screens,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 27, no. 3 (2007): 536. There are also important examples of videogames produced by extreme right wing groups such as Ethnic Cleansing (2002) and White Law (2003) which were developed and released by Resistance records, itself brought by the extremist group National Alliance in 1999. See, for example, John M. Cotter, “Sounds of Hate: White Power Rock and Roll and the Neo-Nazi Skinhead Subculture,” Terrorism and Political Violence 11, no. 2 (1999): 135; Ryan Shaffer, “The Soundtrack of Neo-Fascism: Youth and Music in the National Front,” Patterns of Prejudice 47, no. 4–5 (2013): 481. On gaming-based imagery, see, for example, Peter Wignell, Sabine Tan and Kay L. O’Halloran, “Under the Shade of AK47s: A Multimodal Approach to Violent Extremist Recruitment Strategies for Foreign Fighters,” Critical Studies on Terrorism 10, no. 3 (2017): 445–6.

3 PWC records global sales of $2.6bn in 1996, rising to $18.85bn in 2007 and projected to grow to approx. $130bn by 2021. Figures derived from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2008–12 (New York: PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2008); PricewaterhouseCoopers, Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2017–21 (New York: PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2017).

4 Entertainment Software Association, Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry - 2018 Sales, Demographic and Usage Data (Washington, DC, ESA, 2018), https://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ESA_EssentialFacts_2018.pdf (accessed 22 September 2020).

5 On videogames and jihadist propaganda see Miron Lakomy, “Let’s Play a Video Game: Jihadi Propaganda in the World of Electronic Entertainment,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 40, no. 4 (2019): 384; on white supremacists’ use of videogames see Andrew Selepak, “Skinhead Super Mario Brothers: An Examination of Racist and Violent Games on White Supremacist Web Sites,” Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture 17, no. 1 (2010): 1–47; see also Anti-Defamation League, “Racist Groups Use Computer Gaming To Promote Hate,” (2004), https://www.adl.org/news/article/racist-groups-use-computer-gaming-to-promote-hate (accessed 22 September 2020): 4.

6 Lakomy, “Let’s Play a Video Game”, 391.

7 Ibid., 391–4.

8 Maura Conway, “Determining the Role of the Internet in Violent Extremism and Terrorism: Six Suggestions for Progressing Research,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 40, no. 1 (2017): 77–98.

9 For an overview, see David R. Wilcox (ed.), Propaganda, the Press and Conflict: The Gulf War and Kosovo (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005).

10 Ibid.

11 Jordan Kiper, “Toward an Anthropology of War Propaganda,” Political and Legal Anthropology Review 38, no. 1 (2015): 129–46.

12 Ibid.

13 Kevin Munger and Joseph Phillips, “A Supply and Demand Framework for YouTube Politics Introduction to Political Media on YouTube,” Penn State Political Science, 2019; Alastair Reed and Haroro Ingram, “A Practical Guide to the First Rule of CT-CVE Messaging,” 2nd European Counter-Terrorism Centre (ECTC) Advisory Group Conference, 2019.

14 Jacques Ellul, The Characteristics of Propaganda, in: Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell [Eds.], Readings in Propaganda and Persuasion (London: Sage Publications, 2006), 20.

15 Ibid., 16.

16 Nicholas J. O’Shaughnessy, Politics and Propaganda: Weapons of Mass Seduction (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), 45.

17 Ibid.

18 Europol, TE SAT: European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (The Hague: Europol, 2018). Available at https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/6a2c720a-93a3-11e8-8bc1-01aa75ed71a1/language-en (accessed 22 September 2020): 34.

19 HM Government, Online Harms White Paper (London: The Stationary Office, 2019). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/online-harms-white-paper (accessed 22 September 2020): 13.

20 European Union Agency on Fundamental Rights, Proposal for a Regulation on Preventing the Dissemination of Terrorist Content Online and its Fundamental Rights Implications (Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2019). Available at: https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2019-opinion-online-terrorism-regulation-02-2019_en.pdf (accessed 22 September 2020).

21 Marc Sageman, “The Stagnation in Terrorism Research,” Terrorism and Political Violence 26, no. 4 (2014): 569.

22 Anne Aly, “Brothers, Believers, Brave Mujahideen: Focusing Attention on the Audience of Violent Jihadist Preachers,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 40, no. 1 (2017): 62–76.

23 Cristina Archetti, "Terrorism, Communication and New Media: Explaining Radicalization in the Digital Age,” Perspectives on Terrorism 9, no. 1 (2015): 49–59.

24 Ines von Behr and others, “Radicalisation in the Digital Era: The Use of the Internet in 15 Cases of Terrorism and Extremism,” RAND Corporation, 2013.

25 Conway, “Determining the Role of the Internet in Violent Extremism and Terrorism.”

26 Charlie Winter, “Redefining ‘Propaganda': The Media Strategy of the Islamic State,” RUSI Journal 2020: 22–26.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid., 26.

29 J.M. Berger, “The Turner Legacy: The Storied Origins and Enduring Impact of White Nationalism’s Deadly Bible,” The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (2016).

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid., 34.

32 Ibid.

33 Ibid., 37.

34 Lakomy, “Let’s Play a Video Game”, 384.

35 Alexander Galloway, Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture (Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press, 2006), 9; Souri, “The Political Battlefield of Pro-Arab Video Games on Palestinian Screens”, 539.

36 Gabriel Weimann, Terrorism in Cyberspace (New York: Columbia University Press, 2015), 28.

37 Lakomy, “Let’s Play a Video Game”, 390.

38 Cori E Dauber, Mark D. Robinson, Jovan J. Baslious, and Austin G. Blair, “Call of Duty: Jihad – How the Video Game Motif Has Migrated Downstream from Islamic State Propaganda Videos,” Perspectives on Terrorism 13, no. 3 (2019): 17–31.

39 P. Wignell et al., “Under the Shade of AK47s”, 445–6.

40 Cori E. Dauber and others, “Call of Duty: Jihad – How the Video Game Motif Has Migrated Downstream from Islamic State Propaganda Videos”.

41 Mark D. Robinson and Cori E. Dauber, “Grading the Quality of ISIS Videos: A Metric for Assessing the Technical Sophistication of Digital Video Propaganda,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 42, no. 1–2 (2018): 70–87; Miron Lakomy, “Cracks in the Online ‘Caliphate': How the Islamic State Is Losing Ground in the Battle for Cyberspace,” Perspectives on Terrorism 11, no. 3 (2017): 40–53.

42 Ahmed Al-Rawi, “Video Games, Terrorism, and ISIS’s Jihad 3.0,” Terrorism and Political Violence 30, no. 4 (2016): 740–60.

43 Souri, “The Political Battlefield of Pro-Arab Video Games on Palestinian Screens”, 543–4.

44 Anti-Defamation League, “Racist Groups Use Computer Gaming To Promote Hate”, 4.

45 Paul E. Bolin and Doug Blandy, “Beyond Visual Culture: Seven Statements of Support for Material Culture Studies in Art Education,” Studies in Art Education 44, no. 3 (2003): 256.

46 C. Richard King and David J. Leonard, Beyond Hate: White Power and Popular Culture (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2014), 124.

47 Anti-Defamation League, “Racist Groups Use Computer Gaming To Promote Hate”, 1.

48 Ibid.

49 Selepak, “Skinhead Super Mario Brothers.”

50 Southern Poverty Law Center, National Socialist Movement (Montgomery, Alabama). Available at: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/national-socialist-movement (accessed 22 September 2020).

51 WhyBeAre, “Let’s Play Ethnic Cleasing,” YouTube, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD1-qFwmMZ0&t=39s&ab_channel=WhyBeAre (accessed 22 September 2020)

52 King and Leonard, Beyond Hate, 127.

53 WhyBeAre, “Let’s Play Ethnic Cleansing.”

54 Aaron Winter, “My Enemies Must Be Friends: The American Extreme-Right, Conspiracy Theory, Islam, and the Middle East,” in Conspiracy Theories in the Middle East and the United States, ed. by M. Reinkowski and M. Butter (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014), 35–58.

55 We have opted not to provide a link to the website in question.

56 Lakomy, “Let’s Play a Video Game.”

57 Marcus Schulzke, “Simulating Terrorism and Insurgency: Video Games in the War of Ideas,” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 27, no. 4 (2014): 627–43.

58 Selepak, “Skinhead Super Mario Brothers,” 36–7.

59 For example, see Cluttered Games, “White Law: Most Racist Video Game!” YouTube, Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc6VE9Vb7Oc (accessed 22 September 2020).

60 David Machin and Usama Suleiman, “Arab and American Computer War Games: The Influence of a Global Technology on Discourse,” Critical Discourse Studies 3, no. 1 (2006): 2.

61 Lakomy, “Let’s Play a Video Game”, 13.

62 Ahmed Al-Rawi, “Video Games, Terrorism, and ISIS’s Jihad 3.0”, 746.

63 Laura Huey, “This Is Not Your Mother’s Terrorism: Social Media, Online Radicalization and the Practice of Political Jamming,” Journal of Terrorism Research 6, no. 2, (2015): 1–16.

64 Jerome P. Bjelopera, “American Jihadist Terrorism: Combating a Complex Threat,” Congressional Research Service, 2013; Scott Helfstein, Edges of Radicalization: Ideas, Individuals and Networks in Violent Extremism (West Point, NY: U.S. Military Academy, Combating Terrorism Center, 2012); Caroline Picart, “‘Jihad Cool/Jihad Chic': The Roles of the Internet and Imagined Relations in the Self-Radicalization of Colleen LaRose" (Jihad Jane)’, Societies 5, no. 2 (2015): 354–83.

65 Selepak, “Skinhead Super Mario Brothers”.

66 Lakomy, “Let’s Play a Video Game”, 398–9.

67 There is a huge array of literature which privileges studying representations over gameplay. See, for example, Tracy L. Dietz, “An Examination of Violence and Gender Roles Portrayals in Video Games: Implications for Gender Socialization and Aggressive Behavior,” Sex Roles 38, nos. 5–6 (1998); Dmitri Williams et al., “The Virtual Census: Representations of Gender, Race and Age in Video Games,” New Media and Society 11, no. 5 (2009): 815–34; Vincent Cicchirillo, “Priming Stereotypical Association: Violent Video Games and African American Depictions,” Communication Research Reports, 32, no. 2 (2015): 122–31; Sandra L. Calvert et al., “The American Psychological Association Task Force Assessment of Violent Video Games: Science in the Service of Public Interest,” American Psychologist 72, no. 2 (2017): 126–43.

68 Frans Mäyrä, An Introduction to Game Studies: Games in Culture (London: Sage, 2008), 6.

69 Jesper Juul, The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013).

70 Ian Bogost, Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006); Ian Bogost, “Playing Politics: Videogames for Politics, Activism, and Advocacy,” First Monday 11, no. 7 (2006), Available at http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1617/1532 (accessed 22 September 2020); Ian Bogost, “The Rhetoric of Video Games,” in The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning, ed. Katie Salen (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008), 117–40.

71 Bogost, “The Rhetoric of Video Games,” 121.

72 Ian Bogost, Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007), 3–11.

73 Ibid., 121.

74 Ibid., 125.

75 Mary Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009), 249.

76 James Paul Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy (New York; Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 155; See also Galloway, Gaming, 82.

77 Nick Robinson, “Videogames, Persuasion and the War on Terror: Escaping or Embedding the Military—Entertainment Complex?,” Political Studies 60, no. 3 (2012), 518–9.

78 In making this claim we are very minded that there are considerable differences in using the attributes of a game and effectively “reskinning” assets within it and building from the original game to profoundly change it. The latter requires considerable programming abilities, and whilst still technically a mod effectively amounts to producing a new game. Such competences are beyond those demonstrated by the existing terrorist-sympathising mods which we explore here.

79 Galloway, Gaming, 84.

80 Alexander Galloway, “Social Realism in Gaming,” Game Studies 4, no. 1 (2004): 10; see also Souri, “The Political Battlefield of Pro-Arab Video Games”, 546–50.

81 Miguel Sicart, The Ethics of Computer Games (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009), 191.

82 Ibid., 192.

83 Ibid., 194.

84 Simon Egenfeldt-Neilsen, Jonas Heide Smith and Susana Pajares Tosca, Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction, 3rd ed. (London: Routledge, 2016), 274. For a comprehensive review from the active media perspective, see, for example, Calvert et al., “The American Psychological Association Task Force Assessment of Violent Video Games”. For a comprehensive review of the debate see Nicholas Robinson, “Video Games and Violence: Legislating on the ‘Politics of Confusion’,” The Political Quarterly 83, no. 2 (2012): 417–18.

85 Sicart, The Ethics of Computer Games, 195. See also Egenfeldt-Neilsen et al, Understanding Video Games, 292–7 for exposition of what they term the ‘active user perspective’ which similarly argues that a focus on players is crucial.

86 Sicart, The Ethics of Computer Games, 195.

87 Ibid., 197.

88 There is a huge amount of work from this perspective but for a seminal example see Craig Anderson and Karen Dill, “Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78, no. 4 (2000); see Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al, Understanding Video Games, 278–91 for a review; for a critique, see Christopher Ferguson, “Does Movie or Video Game Violence Predict Societal Violence? It Depends on What You Look at and When,” Journal of Communication 65, no. 1 (2015): 193–212.

89 Sicart, The Ethics of Computer Games, 203.

90 Jesper Juul, “Fear of Failing? The Many Meanings of Difficulty in Video Games,” in The Video Game Theory Reader 2, ed. Bernard Perron and Mark J. P. Wolf (London: Routledge, 2009), 247–8.

91 Miguel Sicart, Beyond Choices: The Design of Ethical Gameplay (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2013), 39.

92 Jenni Marsh and Tara Mulholland, “How the Christchurch Terrorist Attack was Made for Social Media,” CNN, 16 March 2019, https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/15/tech/christchurch-internet-radicalization-intl/index.html (accessed 22 September 2020); Michael Davis, “The Manifesto Posted On 8chan By Alleged El Paso Shooter Minutes Before Attack,” (Washington, DC: Middle East Media Research Institute, 6 August 2019), Available at https://www.memri.org/reports/manifesto-posted-8chan-alleged-el-paso-shooter-minutes-attack (accessed 22 September 2020).

93 See, for example, J. M. Berger, Kateira Aryaeinejad, and Seán Looney, “There and Back Again: How White Nationalist Ephemera Travels between Online and Offline Spaces,” The RUSI Journal 165, no. 1 (2020): 114–29; Luke Munn, “Alt-Right Pipeline: Individual Journeys to Extremism Online,” First Monday, 24, no. 6 (2019), Available at: https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10108/7920 (accessed 22 September 2020); Julia Ebner, Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists (London: Bloomsbury, 2020).

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding for this research provided by a combination of a four-year Framework Grant from The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) entitled, ‘Militarization 2.0: Militarization’s Social Media Footprint Through a Gendered Lens’ [Grant number: 340-2012-5990], the European Union’s Framework Programme 7 [Grant number 312827: VOX-Pol Network of Excellence] and Swansea University’s CHERISH-Digital Economy Centre (EPSRC grant number EP/M022722/1).