Alt-right groups are targeting young video gamers — and finding a culture where extremist views can flourish

In 2017, Finn*, a then-15-year-old gamer from Melbourne, showed his mother a viral clip he'd come across while watching gaming videos on YouTube.

The video showed an alt-right protester punching a young anti-fascist woman in the face at a Patriot's Day rally in Berkeley, California. "She got king hit," says Finn's mother, Stephanie.

A narrator made fun of the act of violence. "It was passed off as funny by the commentary," Stephanie says.

But far from finding the video humorous, Stephanie was shocked at what she saw.

"I actually burst into tears when he showed it to me," she says.

When Finn told her, "there are good people on both sides", Stephanie's heart dropped.

"I knew that was what president [Donald] Trump had said. My mind was spinning. I thought, what has my son got into online? I've let this happen. I haven't been asking enough questions," she says.

"I told him it was wrong, that I was really disappointed in him to be watching that kind of thing, and I would be even more so if he was sharing it amongst his friends. I let him know that I'd talk to his teachers about it."

Finn's school immediately stepped in to help, offering its online safety course to younger year groups and inviting counsellors to speak to students.

"That was fantastic for Finn," Stephanie says. "We got it really early. He was quite innocent [and] impressionable. He hadn't gone totally down the rabbit hole."

Gaming and violent extremism

The world of online gaming has a long association with violent extremism.

Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old man accused of killing 10 people in a Buffalo supermarket in May, signalled his intention to target Black people in a mass shooting on Discord, a chat app popular among gamers.

In the wake of the tragedy, New York Attorney-General Letitia James announced an investigation into online platforms that may have been used to stream, promote, or plan the event, including Discord, 4chan, 8chan and Twitch, a video game live-streaming service owned by Amazon.

Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in 2011, told the court during his trial that he played computer games such as World of Warcraft and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for "training purposes" in preparation for his shocking attack.

Brenton Tarrant, the Australian shooter who killed 51 people at two Christchurch mosques in 2019, referenced popular video games Spyro the Dragon and Fortnite in a manifesto he distributed minutes before launching his attack.

Helen Young, an expert on racism and popular culture from Deakin University, says that while some perpetrators of fatal attacks have been gamers, it's important to note that "so are literally millions of other people who don't become radicalised".

She says the link between online gaming, right-wing radicalisation and violent extremism is an under-researched area.

"It's difficult to say video games even played a role for some of these individuals. Radicalisation … is a complicated process and is different for everybody.

"Sometimes gaming and games are in the mix; sometimes they're not."

But Dr Young says what's certain is that far-right organisations are targeting gaming spaces, interacting with other users and producing content for online platforms associated with gaming, such as Twitch, Steam or YouTube, where Finn encountered the alt-right video he showed his mother.

Kaz Ross, an independent researcher into far-right extremism and conspiracy theories, says part of the problem is social media algorithms, which serve users increasingly extreme content to boost views and engagement.


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-15/alt-right-groups-video-games-radicalising...

"young white men"

"a young white guy"

"Young white men"

"white masculinity"

"young white men"

"culture and community of white"

It's about as racist as it can get, that article. The ABC should be prosecuted over it, it's the worst display of racism I've ever seen

freediver wrote on Jul 16^th, 2022 at 9:16am:


Punching Nazis is patriotism

John Smith wrote on Jul 16^th, 2022 at 11:45am:


Ironic. From memory. It was a while back. It was a microcosm of you and your friends. Whining about fascists while also being fascists. Totally oblivious to your own hypocrisy.

Or maybe she just turned up for the biff. Who knows.

freediver wrote on Jul 16^th, 2022 at 11:47am:


Define fascism.  How was he a fascist.  Show us you know what the word means and don't just use it because you hear it a  lot?

freediver wrote on Jul 16^th, 2022 at 11:51am:


Define fascism? What did I ever say I did, that was fascist?

freediver wrote on Jul 16^th, 2022 at 11:53am:


I am confused.  Do I point out that's not fascism? Do I point out I've never done that? You're just wrong in every possible way.

Perhaps if you read a book, you might know what fascism is? Or just read on what Trump did, that qualifies

freediver wrote on Jul 16^th, 2022 at 12:00pm:


We have established you have NFI what fascism is.  Why do you call people that?I can only assume it's a reflex, call people the thing you get called.  One assumes the people calling you a fascist can read and know what it means

But we will never know because you're scared to discuss it