Congresswoman Criticizes Gaming Companies For Increases In Digital Extremism

Digital extremism and harassment are sadly a part of the online gaming ecosystem, and at least one congresswoman is trying to do something about it. Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) reached out to major gaming companies such as EA, Epic Games, Sony, Microsoft, and others on issues of harassment and extremism in online games, and her office recently released a summary of the responses.

“After reading through responses from top gaming companies, I’m disappointed that the majority of companies failed to address some of our most urgent questions, including providing us with their policies around extremism, as well as transparency reporting around these topics,” Trahan said in a press release.

The press release also cites a study from the Anti-Defamation League that states that 15 percent of gamers under 18 years old and 20 percent of adults report encountering white supremacy online. The study also says that three in every five children have experienced harassment playing online games.

As Axios notes, several of the top companies responded with concrete measures–for example, Epic Games said that it hired 1,500 specialists to address player reports, and Tencent said that it prioritizes reports from accounts used by minors. Several companies stated that they plan to use AI tools to detect problematic comments from players. However, according to Trahan, nine of the 14 responses didn’t mitigate or assess extremism in their games. This action prompted a response from the Entertainment Software Association, which states that the industry takes this issue “very seriously.”