this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024

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The Feds Are Coming for “Extremist” Gamers (theintercept.com)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 7 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Anarchy has stood for those things since its inception.

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Thanks for the assist

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

But I never said it was about violence and lawlessness

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago

No worries 🙂

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 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..

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Roblox? Are there that many radicalized 8 year olds?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Letting them out from the mines was a mistake

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Can't even fit their plump little bodies down chimneys anymore.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Gotta catch them early if you want to have nice obedient corporate drones.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Robocop?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Warning of what? Gamergate-types not supporting Biden?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

i'm sure that'd be done fairly

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 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