SoftwarePlatformsRobloxUS government report reveals how Discord, Roblox, Reddit and others co-operate with the FBI and Homeland Security over content like ‘user-generated re-creations of mass shootings’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
SoftwarePlatformsRobloxUS government report reveals how Discord, Roblox, Reddit and others co-operate with the FBI and Homeland Security over content like ‘user-generated re-creations of mass shootings’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Urbazon via Getty Images)
A newly published USGovernment Accountability Report(GAO) looks at the role of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security in combating domestic violent extremism online, and in the process reveals what we surely all knew anyway. Discord? Reddit? Roblox. All your base are belong to the Feds!
The nature of this cooperation when it comes to the gaming companies is essentially that the DHS holds meetings at which they share information “about online activities promoting domestic violent extremism” or even stuff that violates their terms of service. The companies provide leads on anything that may potentially be illegal and the FBI follows up. In addition to this Discord and Roblox have a “trusted flagger” program through which “approved subject matter experts in extremism can use a streamlined channel to report potentially violating content.”
We’ll get into the weeds of what the government thinks such content may include, but the report offers some examples. “Researchers have identified user-generated re-creations of mass shootings on the gaming platform Roblox, such as the 2019 shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the 2022 shooting in Buffalo, New York. Roblox officials told us their moderation team reviewed their content moderation tools and adjusted them to block these games and prevent content glorifying violent incidents from appearing on the platform.”
Recreations of real world mass shootings (and on a platform with a huge young audience) are one thing, but what may worry some is how vague and potentially over-reaching the US government is about what may constitute domestic violent extremism. Since 2019 it has defined five types of domestic terrorism threat: racially motivated extremism, anti-government and anti-authority extremism, animal rights and environmental extremism, abortion-related extremism, then the catch-all of any other domestic terror threats.
These categories are so broad that people may rightly wonder where the line is between responsible intervention (such as with the Roblox examples) and the potential for Big Brother overreach when someone is having a normal one online about how much they hate the government or the repeal of Roe vs. Wade. To give the report its due, it does acknowledge the big unanswered questions about the friction between the above and Americans’ free speech rights, but it’s not like the FBI is known for its nuanced approach towards potential extremists: in recent decades it’s been behind someshocking lapses and botched schemes, and been accused of entrapment of suspects multiple times.
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